Paving season underway soon

Prince George has 1,556 lane kilometres of roads. Choosing which of those roads will see attention takes a little logistical planning. There are three things the City looks at.

“The first would be service requests. Second would be – we have a third party, pavement assessment group come in – and that normally takes place every four years for our arterial and collectors and every seven years for our local residential streets. And then, on top of that, we’ll also do visual inspections.”

The roads budget is always a source of discussion for Council at budget-time. This year, Weisman’s department asked for $7.3 million, an increase of $300,000 over last year’s budget. But Council shaved that to $150,000.

“It’ll be quite a robust budget. We will do roads and sidewalks, and we know that’s a priority,” explains Councillor Ron Polillo. “It certainly is for council. And a priority for the residents of Prince George. But when you have to make tough decisions in a budget. You know, these are some of the decisions that you have to make.”

And, aside from weather, there are other factors the city needs to consider. For example, asphalt is a petroleum-product.

“There are numerous things that we take into consideration. We could spend millions and millions and millions of dollars every year. And just trying to to catch up would be tough. But, you know, we are appreciative of the funding that we get. We do make some headway, but every year it seems like there are countless candidates,” says Wiseman.

by Cheryl Jahn

Paving season underway soon

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