Streets around Lloydminster are getting some much-needed repairs as construction season is set to begin.
Council awarded the contract to ASL Paving Ltd. at the Feb. 24 council meeting.
Key roads will receive repairs as part of this year’s Street Improvement Program.
Repairs will take place on 49 Ave. from 12 St. to 15 St., 75 Ave. from 43 St. to 44 St. and 51 Ave. from 26 St. to 27 St. including 26A St. close.
During the question-and-answer period, Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers asked if it would be possible to give an age to some of these roads.
“We would have records; we could go back and determine when that road was originally built. On some of these sections, 49 Ave. in particular, has had multiple developments multiple cuts into it,” said James Rogers, senior manager, capital infrastructure.
“It was paved, lets say 50 years ago, but they’ve been cut into and chewed up, so they are at a point where they are no longer servicing their life.”
Don Stang, executive manager of operations at the City of Lloydminster, says they have software to help determine street conditions.
“We have an asset management software called RoadMatrix where there’s a vehicle that comes out and drives it all and captures how many cracks and alligator cracking we have and road index and all these things,” he said.
Once all the data is collected, the software indicates the road’s condition. There’s a plan to do a city-wide inspection with this software, helping administration with future considerations for road repairs.
Aalbers says one of the challenges is the roads will deteriorate until they need to be replaced, further impacted by Lloydminster’s freeze and thaw during early spring.
“You’ll see city crews patching potholes already. One of the challenges is we can patch a street as much as we can, but it reaches a point and the asphalt will deteriorate over time to a point (it) has to be replaced,” he said.
Council approved the award of the $2,423,104.29 contract to ASL Paving Ltd with a contingency of 5 per cent in the amount of $121,155.21.
Construction is anticipated to start in the spring and be completed by Sept. 26.
Read more: Downtown construction update
