City hall won’t hire a contractor to fill potholes because it says it has the manpower and can do the job for less, a decision that doesn’t sit well with Coun. Dawn Luhning.
During the July 10 meeting, city hall provided a report that laid out the costs between having a contractor fill potholes and public works crews doing it, in response to council adopting a motion at its previous meeting about this topic.
The report indicated that the cost for a contractor to lay hot mix asphalt on a full road paving project is between $190 and $205 per square metre. Conversely, it would cost the public works department $30 to $50 per square metre for materials, equipment and labour — about four times less.
“The above compares full road overlays to discrete pothole locations. The city anticipates the costs to contract pothole repair would be higher,” the report said. “In early July, street sweeping efforts will be completed, allowing for further resources (including more employees) to be allocated to pothole repair.”
Finance director Brian Acker told council that the municipality is “very cost-efficient” in filling potholes, based on in-house research. Moreover, while full-road paving projects cost four times more than filling potholes, laying asphalt on a whole block is more efficient than on a small area.
An issue the city faces if it looked for outside help now is finding a contractor since most are busy, he added. Meanwhile, council should consider during its 2024 budget deliberations implementing a second pothole crew that can start work earlier in the year.
Council later voted unanimously to refer this issue to those budget talks.
Disappointing report
“I’m really disappointed in this report. I do think that paving our roads and keeping up with potholes is one of the basic duties that we should be doing as a municipality,” Luhning said.
The councillor reiterated that she drives certain routes daily and sees that the city is not performing any pothole work along those streets, including 13th Avenue Northwest from Regal Crescent to Caribou Street.
Luhning noted that that stretch is so poor that she recently saw a southbound bus swerve into the left-hand lane to avoid potholes in its lane. She reminded council that city administration said it focused on making bus routes a priority — but has done nothing to fix this road.
Clearly, city hall does not have enough employees to complete this work, which is likely council’s fault for not providing enough resources, Luhning continued. She thought they needed to do better, especially since residents regularly tell her how horrible the streets are.
“I am starting to think we cannot be everybody to everyone, and we have got to start figuring out how to maintain our streets to a better degree and have them driveable … there are potholes everywhere … ,” she added. “I guess we should just accept that these roads are not in good shape. I’m really disappointed.”
Fixing 13th Avenue falls under the capital budget because city hall must rebuild it, whereas filling potholes is an operational issue, Acker said.
Everyone sees the streets
Coun. Doug Blanc recalled a conversation he had with a rural councillor during Sidewalk Days and how that official was surprised the city hadn’t filled in potholes along Main Street, since some people were tripping over the crumbling infrastructure.
Blanc stressed that residents see potholes compared to less visible projects like the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant, high-service pumphouse, cast iron replacement program or other underground-related initiatives.
There were also hundreds of people who visited Moose Jaw over the weekend who attended sporting activities and it’s the streets they noticed, not the sewer infrastructure or back-alley garbage collection, he added. The city needs to address this issue soon because it reflects poorly on the municipality.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, July 24.
