Max
06-18-2003, 07:21 AM
Crumbling roadways plague Sudburians
'The slow lane, near the curb is usually the worst for potholes'
By Laura Stradiotto/The Sudbury Star
Monday, June 16, 2003 - 11:00
Local News - "You'll notice the bumps in the road more in this taxi," said Rob MacDonald of Aaron Taxi, sliding open the front door of the wheelchair accessible cab.
"A lot of the roads are in need of repair. But I've come to know that from my customers, who are more sensitive to the bumps. They're restricted to a wheelchair and some are not padded that well."
City of Greater Sudbury and roads - use those two words in the same sentence and a colourful discussion will follow.
Crumbling roads in the community is the topic of conversation and debate in workplaces, homes, coffee shops, restaurants and city council.
"As soon as you leave the city limits, the roads seem to improve," said MacDonald.
When driving down Lasalle Boulevard with a customer, MacDonald said he usually has to slow down to 25 or 30 km/hour.
"The slow lane, near the curb, is usually the worst for potholes," he said.
Driving down The Kingsway to pick up a customer on Summerhill Road, MacDonald remarks on the road reconstruction and new sidewalks on Bancroft Drive - a section of town notorious for potholes and cracked pavement.
"Now you don't have to worry about running over pedestrians," he quipped.
The $2.2-million Bancroft Drive construction project will be completed by mid-November.
Other than four-laning Municipal Road 35 from Sudbury to Azilda, funded mostly by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, there are no major road reconstruction projects in the books for this year, said Don Belisle, general manager of public works.
But motorists can expect to see about 25 to 30 smaller projects within the year.
Pulling up to the curb on Summerhill Road, MacDonald lowers the side door to allow Laura Mackenzie and her seven-year-old son, Draven, on board.
Mackenzie suffers from a spinal cord injury and is confined to a wheelchair. She feels pain in her legs. Her main concern is not damage to vehicles.
"Some of these roads are so bad, it's painful," she said.
The van is large and doesn't absorb shocks that well. So every bump on the road intensifies the agony.
"Sometimes I have to tell him to slow down. I have my good days and bad days ..."
She says she's lived in Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. Nothing compares to Sudbury roads.
MacDonald avoids as much of Lasalle Boulevard as he can, using backroads.
At a certain point, he turns onto Lasalle to drop Mackenzie at a pharmacy.
He slows down to 20 km/h in front of the New Sudbury Centre.
Mackenzie white-knuckles the side of her wheelchair as the van trembles and comes to a halt.
"It seems the city is doing more maintenance and filling in the potholes than fixing the root of the problem," said MacDonald.
"I'm by far no engineer, but maybe the foundation needs some attention too, more than just putting asphalt on top."
Belisle couldn't agree more.
In the city's 10-year financial plan, a funding gap in the capital budget of $131 million is projected for road reconstruction and restructuring.
But funding for capital reconstruction projects has fallen short since 1996, said Belisle.
"And what that has created is a need for more maintenance," said Belisle. "We're doing more patching since we haven't been reconstructing the roads."
These maintenance projects are referred to as "shave and pave."
"We grind out the surface asphalt and we re-lay new surface asphalt," he said.
When the shave and pave process is completed during early summer, results could last about three or four years. Spring maintenance only lasts a few weeks because snow is still melting.
Water seeps into cracks, then freezes, expanding the problem again. Shave and pave "is a Band-aid to look after the worst areas," said Belisle.
"What's really required is major reconstruction such as we're doing on Bancroft Drive when you take out the entire road down to the base, potentially change the sewer and water pipes in the base of the road, then rebuild the whole road up to the new road."
There are 1,627 kms of road within the City of Greater Sudbury. However, one kilometre of a four-lane road is equal to four kms of road space, explained Belisle.
Therefore, there are 3,472 lane kilometres within the City of Greater Sudbury.
About 45 per cent of those lane kilometres are in need of repair and reconstruction.
This large percentage is due to the lack of adequate spending in the last eight years on road maintenance, said Belisle.
Weather plays another role.
A new road in southern Ontario lasts 30 years. In Northern Ontario, that same road would last 18 years under proper maintenance.
"Our roads are constructed to a different standard to southern Ontario because of frost penetration. We do get deep frost penetration, which makes our roads heave and move every spring when frost comes out of the ground."
Robert Sauve owns U-Need-A-Cab, which consists of four taxis. He said he spends about $500 in front-end work a year for each taxi.
"The trails in the bush are smoother than these roads," he said. "There's no need for this. Instead of putting a patch of hot asphalt, do it right. They just return to the same spots year after year to do the same work."
The roads themselves are placed into three categories: arterial (multi-lane roads), collective (roads between arterial) and local roads (side streets), he explained.
For example, Lasalle Boulevard and Falconbridge are arterial roads. Auger Avenue is a collective road because it runs between. The streets connecting to Auger are local roads.
"Within each one of those three classes, we do a pavement management assessment to determine just how bad the roads are. We have a point rating system that looks at various factors: volume of traffic on the road, the potholes, the bumpiness, the cracking of the asphalt. All these factors are assigned numerical values as we examine the road."
While each category has key priority areas requiring maintenance, that list is not readily available.
"It's about this thick," he said, holding his index finger and thumb about four inches apart. Computer data exist on every 1,000 metres of road.
Poor road conditions caused embarrassment for Marc Noiseux of Val Caron, who recently had relatives visit him from the United States and Montreal.
"Everyone mentioned the bad quality of the roads," he said. "It's noticeable. In fact, some of the worst bumps are in front of city hall."
His relatives joked that the city should charge motorists for a free roller coaster ride.
Noiseux suggests raising taxes, since all motorists end up paying through repairs anyway.
"I'd rather pay up front," he said.
In a report to council, Belisle presented three options to address an expected funding shortfall in road maintenance for this year.
And raising taxes 2.3 per cent per year as a special capital levy could look after road reconstruction, said Belisle.
"I would recommend they (council) would begin to put some serious money into reconstruction," said Belisle.
Or council could do what they did last year: take no action now and use a possible year-end surplus to offset the shortfall.
Two other options to avoid maintenance over-expenditures this year listed in Belisle's report include cutting projects by $1.4 million, or taking funds from the road reconstruction reserve.
City councillors are to deal with the issue at a meeting June 25.
ID- 35051
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'The slow lane, near the curb is usually the worst for potholes'
By Laura Stradiotto/The Sudbury Star
Monday, June 16, 2003 - 11:00
Local News - "You'll notice the bumps in the road more in this taxi," said Rob MacDonald of Aaron Taxi, sliding open the front door of the wheelchair accessible cab.
"A lot of the roads are in need of repair. But I've come to know that from my customers, who are more sensitive to the bumps. They're restricted to a wheelchair and some are not padded that well."
City of Greater Sudbury and roads - use those two words in the same sentence and a colourful discussion will follow.
Crumbling roads in the community is the topic of conversation and debate in workplaces, homes, coffee shops, restaurants and city council.
"As soon as you leave the city limits, the roads seem to improve," said MacDonald.
When driving down Lasalle Boulevard with a customer, MacDonald said he usually has to slow down to 25 or 30 km/hour.
"The slow lane, near the curb, is usually the worst for potholes," he said.
Driving down The Kingsway to pick up a customer on Summerhill Road, MacDonald remarks on the road reconstruction and new sidewalks on Bancroft Drive - a section of town notorious for potholes and cracked pavement.
"Now you don't have to worry about running over pedestrians," he quipped.
The $2.2-million Bancroft Drive construction project will be completed by mid-November.
Other than four-laning Municipal Road 35 from Sudbury to Azilda, funded mostly by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, there are no major road reconstruction projects in the books for this year, said Don Belisle, general manager of public works.
But motorists can expect to see about 25 to 30 smaller projects within the year.
Pulling up to the curb on Summerhill Road, MacDonald lowers the side door to allow Laura Mackenzie and her seven-year-old son, Draven, on board.
Mackenzie suffers from a spinal cord injury and is confined to a wheelchair. She feels pain in her legs. Her main concern is not damage to vehicles.
"Some of these roads are so bad, it's painful," she said.
The van is large and doesn't absorb shocks that well. So every bump on the road intensifies the agony.
"Sometimes I have to tell him to slow down. I have my good days and bad days ..."
She says she's lived in Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. Nothing compares to Sudbury roads.
MacDonald avoids as much of Lasalle Boulevard as he can, using backroads.
At a certain point, he turns onto Lasalle to drop Mackenzie at a pharmacy.
He slows down to 20 km/h in front of the New Sudbury Centre.
Mackenzie white-knuckles the side of her wheelchair as the van trembles and comes to a halt.
"It seems the city is doing more maintenance and filling in the potholes than fixing the root of the problem," said MacDonald.
"I'm by far no engineer, but maybe the foundation needs some attention too, more than just putting asphalt on top."
Belisle couldn't agree more.
In the city's 10-year financial plan, a funding gap in the capital budget of $131 million is projected for road reconstruction and restructuring.
But funding for capital reconstruction projects has fallen short since 1996, said Belisle.
"And what that has created is a need for more maintenance," said Belisle. "We're doing more patching since we haven't been reconstructing the roads."
These maintenance projects are referred to as "shave and pave."
"We grind out the surface asphalt and we re-lay new surface asphalt," he said.
When the shave and pave process is completed during early summer, results could last about three or four years. Spring maintenance only lasts a few weeks because snow is still melting.
Water seeps into cracks, then freezes, expanding the problem again. Shave and pave "is a Band-aid to look after the worst areas," said Belisle.
"What's really required is major reconstruction such as we're doing on Bancroft Drive when you take out the entire road down to the base, potentially change the sewer and water pipes in the base of the road, then rebuild the whole road up to the new road."
There are 1,627 kms of road within the City of Greater Sudbury. However, one kilometre of a four-lane road is equal to four kms of road space, explained Belisle.
Therefore, there are 3,472 lane kilometres within the City of Greater Sudbury.
About 45 per cent of those lane kilometres are in need of repair and reconstruction.
This large percentage is due to the lack of adequate spending in the last eight years on road maintenance, said Belisle.
Weather plays another role.
A new road in southern Ontario lasts 30 years. In Northern Ontario, that same road would last 18 years under proper maintenance.
"Our roads are constructed to a different standard to southern Ontario because of frost penetration. We do get deep frost penetration, which makes our roads heave and move every spring when frost comes out of the ground."
Robert Sauve owns U-Need-A-Cab, which consists of four taxis. He said he spends about $500 in front-end work a year for each taxi.
"The trails in the bush are smoother than these roads," he said. "There's no need for this. Instead of putting a patch of hot asphalt, do it right. They just return to the same spots year after year to do the same work."
The roads themselves are placed into three categories: arterial (multi-lane roads), collective (roads between arterial) and local roads (side streets), he explained.
For example, Lasalle Boulevard and Falconbridge are arterial roads. Auger Avenue is a collective road because it runs between. The streets connecting to Auger are local roads.
"Within each one of those three classes, we do a pavement management assessment to determine just how bad the roads are. We have a point rating system that looks at various factors: volume of traffic on the road, the potholes, the bumpiness, the cracking of the asphalt. All these factors are assigned numerical values as we examine the road."
While each category has key priority areas requiring maintenance, that list is not readily available.
"It's about this thick," he said, holding his index finger and thumb about four inches apart. Computer data exist on every 1,000 metres of road.
Poor road conditions caused embarrassment for Marc Noiseux of Val Caron, who recently had relatives visit him from the United States and Montreal.
"Everyone mentioned the bad quality of the roads," he said. "It's noticeable. In fact, some of the worst bumps are in front of city hall."
His relatives joked that the city should charge motorists for a free roller coaster ride.
Noiseux suggests raising taxes, since all motorists end up paying through repairs anyway.
"I'd rather pay up front," he said.
In a report to council, Belisle presented three options to address an expected funding shortfall in road maintenance for this year.
And raising taxes 2.3 per cent per year as a special capital levy could look after road reconstruction, said Belisle.
"I would recommend they (council) would begin to put some serious money into reconstruction," said Belisle.
Or council could do what they did last year: take no action now and use a possible year-end surplus to offset the shortfall.
Two other options to avoid maintenance over-expenditures this year listed in Belisle's report include cutting projects by $1.4 million, or taking funds from the road reconstruction reserve.
City councillors are to deal with the issue at a meeting June 25.
ID- 35051
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Printable Version
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for reading The Sudbury Star online. Click here to order convenient home delivery.
Local News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not time to talk yet, says Inco Ltd.
Nobody gets away with trying to rob this store
Neureka set for growth spurt
Union to honour workers killed on the job
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY
http://www.thesudburystar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=35051&catname=Local+News