News Roads & Paving
Sudbury recommending additional $6 million on road work

With approximately $79 million of linear infrastructure work planned in Greater Sudbury this year, another $6 million has been recommended for a supplemental road rehabilitation program.

Linear infrastructure “includes the rehabilitation of the sanitary sewer, water and storm systems, bridges, culverts and pavement,” according to a municipal report to be discussed at the April 19 finance and administration committee meeting.

The additional $6 million being proposed comes as a result of a motion by Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer last month in which he asked city administration to dig up additional funds for road work.

“A lot of the roads have really taken a hard hit this past winter,” he said at the time, citing an extreme freeze/thaw cycle this past winter season that left roads looking ragged.

“This is the echo we’re hearing from our residents a lot,” Ward 6 Coun. Rene Lapierre said. “The more that we can get done, if it’s possible, we should at least look at it to see what we can get accomplished for our residents.”

In the report city council will consider in committee on Tuesday, it’s recommended that the additional $6-million roads boost be spent on maintenance treatments. The funding is recommended to come from reserves.

The key road maintenance treatment method the city recommends is spreader-laid patches.

These patches are longer-lasting than pothole patching, as they involve removing a large area of deteriorating and cracking asphalt around the patch. The asphalt that replaces the area has an “increased compaction and smoothness that can be achieved with a mechanical spreader.”

The patches can extend the life of pavement by two to five years, according to the report, but can reach up to 10 years in cases where the road’s substructure isn’t damaged.

If the full $6 million is spent on spreader laid patches, approximately 100,000 square metres or the equivalent of 28.5 lane kilometres of pavement will be repaired – 0.8 per cent of the city’s 3,600 lane kilometres of roads.

The city has not budgeted any money this year toward surface treatment, which seals existing pavement to help prevent deterioration of the road surface. This might also be included in the $6-million expenditure, and would require a minimum of 13 lane kilometres at a cost of $1 million to make it worthwhile to bring in the out-of-town contractors.

(Sudbury.com)