"This is a city where people make things happen."

Road Maintenance

Read some of Don's previous blog posts on this topic:


Potholes 2013: Triage and Beyond posted April 14th, 2013 in 2010-2013 Term, Road Maintenance

This example is from Allendale on 108 Street. There are many places like this that need more than just patching but are a long way from scheduled repaving.

It’s a perfect storm for potholes. And City Council is taking short-term action while continuing to advance longer-term solutions.

To demystify the pothole: water infiltrates under the roadway surface through cracks but doesn’t drain because of our soil conditions. That water expands as it freezes and exerts pressure on the roadway material. This happens over and over, and combined with the pounding of vehicle traffic, you get a pothole.

But the compounding factor is that we are behind on maintenance. Like most cities we are better at building new things than looking after old ones. So we have more cracks and more patchwork than we should.

We are still way behind on arterial (main) road maintenance. Last month Council diverted $13 million more into a ‘mill and fill’ program to get caught up on some of the worst stretches of road. That work will run all summer. We will need to commit more funds in future years too. (more…)

Bike Lanes And The Big Picture posted February 22nd, 2013 in 2010-2013 Term, Community Consultation, Road Maintenance, Smarter Planning

[Update - March 7, 2013: The report scheduled for discussion on March 13th has been posted here including some very interesting fall 2012 survey data here in Attachment 2 pf the report showing that more than half of Edmontonians already cycle, and that many would ride more with better facilities, including bike lanes.]

Last week the effort to increase cycling opportunities in Edmonton hit some bumps.

First, a consultation session designed to share information and get feedback about routes planned for implementation this season degenerated into a shouting match, which hindered the City from getting precisely the input they were there to hear. (The details of the proposed routes are here.)

The next morning the Mayor added fuel to the fire with a sharply worded inquiry that garnered a lot of media attention at the Transportation committee (you can watch the comments here by clicking on item 2.1 and waiting about 30 seconds).

The route network from the Bicycle Transportation Plan - major routes shown in blue, connector routes shown in green. Click to zoom in.

The inquiry will result in a report for discussion at the March 13th Transportation Committee. I won’t be at all surprised at that point if the whole program is put on hiatus for ‘study’, rather than having a real debate about whether Council actually supports making some tough decisions to enhance transportation choice. (Some of the city-building benefits making these tough choices are well articulated in this blog post from Executive Director of the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters’ Society.)

One of the more constructive suggestions I heard last week was from Paula Simons, which was to focus our efforts on high quality cycling facilities in the core (such as Downtown and Oliver, Strathcona and University areas).

This makes sense. I’d like to see those routes prioritized too. That’s where existing demand is highest, and where the greatest short-term potential is to attract new riders.

However, the City’s Bicycle Transportation Plan still calls for a citywide network of bike lanes to provide enhanced choices for all Edmontonians, and better facilities for those who already choose to ride.

Council has an overall vision and numerous policies and plans that explicitly champion more transportation choices for citizens.

More travel options are crucial to dealing with worsening traffic congestion. Those options can also lead to a healthier city, cleaner air, and savings for individuals and the City.

Yes, most Edmontonians drive, but if we aren’t willing to endure some changes to make way for new choices, then traffic congestion will only get worse. That’s the real inconvenience to everyone, including present and future drivers. That’s the big picture.

Getting into the details, some people wonder why certain roads have been selected as cycling routes, but there is logic to it in the plan. The routes generally have two characteristics: 1) they are through roads, and 2) they are less busy. 106 Street instead of 109 Street, for example. People have suggested the city use local roads, and where they run through this makes great sense (like 83 Avenue between Mill Creek and 112 Street).

In any case, I don’t think the routes are the real issue.

The fact is there is simply no way to make space for bike lanes without making some changes to the roads they would share – and the same tensions that have come up (mainly around lost parking) will come up anywhere. This happens in every city that has tried to make this shift.

More engagement with residents and businesses is good; the City can always learn from the public when making changes to an area. I know the implementation of bike lanes in my ward benefitted from local knowledge – in many cases protecting parking for schools, businesses and churches based on feedback.

But I don’t think this is really about consultation either.

To me, this is about comfort zone: is Council willing to work through the discomforts of change to deliver on the vision for more transportation choice in our city?

All I know is that people are surprisingly resilient to change. They clear out their garages. They park around the corner. Sometimes they even chose to walk or bike more. If we move ahead it will work out; after all, the sky hasn’t fallen anywhere in my ward where the lanes have already gone in.

Investing in Neighbourhood Renewal posted July 11th, 2012 in 2010-2013 Term, Road Maintenance, Taxation

Construction season is upon us once again – but as each year passes Council is dedicating more of your tax dollars toward local roads, over and above the continued work on the main roads.

The blue shows the work from 1987-2008 (22 years, 53 neighbourhoods). The red shows the 2009-2014 work program (6 years, 69 neighbourhoods).

I recently requested a report from City Administration on progress, which was debated June 26th at Transportation Committee. The report can be accessed here: Multi-year Neighborhood Renewal Report

PowerPoint slides from June 26 Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Presentation

City’s Neighbourhood Renewal information page

Projected Reconstruction out to 2018

Projected Overlay Preventive Maintenance out to 2014

To put our progress in context, as recent as 2007 the City was only reconstructing one neighbourhood a year. This year the City is beginning reconstruction in six neighbourhoods, and five more next year. We aim to continue this pace of work for the next 10-15 years until we’re caught up.

This program is not only about the older areas. There is preventive maintenance occurring in the 20-40 year-old areas to ensure that the roads and sidewalks hold up for their full life, rather than prematurely deteriorating.

We aim to build a dedicated source of funds to ensure that all neighbourhoods are renewed in a timely fashion. However, this will require a few more years of the 1.5% levy added to the property tax to make the fund sustainable. [I wrote about the decision here to start this work back in 2008.]

Newer Ward 10 neighbourhoods currently slated for repaving and sidewalk maintenance include Keheewin next year and Sweet Grass in 2014. That’s as far out as this preventive work is scheduled, but the plan is to average about 8 neighbourhoods per year. Duggan, Greenfield and Bearspaw received attention last year.

The reconstruction schedule for older neighbourhoods runs out to 2018 and includes Lansdowne in the 2015-2018 window. The most recent report indicated that Allendale, Malmo and Royal Gardens are all high priority for the 2018-2021 timeframe, but specific start times have not been set.

I do hear frustration from neighbourhoods that are still waiting and wonder why. The answer is complex but I the priority is based on the condition of infrastructure (both underground and on the surface) as assessed by engineers whom we expect to be impartial.

The order is not political and Council is not picking winners and losers.

[UPDATE: the evaluation process is described here and the condition ratings are published in a map here.] 

With a little patience the investments will pay off and we will all catch up. That’s better than ‘sometime in the next century’ which was all we could say back in 2007.

Winter Roads Paradigm Shift Needed posted January 31st, 2011 in 2010-2013 Term, Community Consultation, Road Maintenance, Snow Removal

This was near where the fire truck infamously became stuck last Sunday. I was there the day before based on the volume of concerns, and after seeing this and other trouble spots across the ward I asked (along with several other councillors it turns out) for the City Manager to call in the graders. It was still nearly a week before this crescent was cleared out.

Let me start with an apology for the snow service Edmonton residents have received this winter. Our response to the conditions was not good enough and I am sorry for the disruption.

I must also express gratitude for the efforts of our staff and contractors who have generally done their best under the circumstances, and thanks to all the neighbourly Edmontonians who helped each other get through the last month.

Council is ultimately responsible for the resources and policy direction and we are accountable to get this right. Our planned approach might have served in an average winter, but our policy and resources are clearly insufficient for exceptional winters, and we must plan for more severe weather with a changing climate.

A review of the snow policy has already begun. After several hours of discussion at Council we directed City staff to prepare and analyze several options for more timely winter roadway service. We discussed how other cities respond to extraordinary weather and this too will inform our follow up.

We are already looking at buying more equipment. To start with, we’re looking at another 20 sander-plow trucks for next winter, on top of the 111 we have today, to improve our response time to all snow events.

We also discussed that we need an entirely different response to exceptional weather like we’ve experienced this month.

But we’ll need your input.

Many have suggested some version of an overnight on-street parking ban during major snowfalls, which would help our existing resources reach further and faster by not having to work around parked vehicles – a kind of return to the snow routes.

Others have concerns about windrows on side streets, and I think this needs further discussion. For instance, if we could get plows into neighbourhoods sooner after moderate snowfalls while it’s still soft it would keep the plows moving quicker, and the smaller softer windrows would be more easily removed by residents who desired to maintain on-street parking.

Clearly, whatever we come up with, we need a paradigm shift.

I will post more information as our work to fix this unfolds here and I encourage you to leave your comments below.

If you would like to receive email notification of developments on this topic or provide input, feel free to send an e-mail to don.iveson at edmonton.ca

Examiner Column: 111th Street Intersections posted May 6th, 2010 in 2007-2010 Term, Road Maintenance, Transit

What follows ran in today’s Edmonton Examiner as my monthly column. It follows up from this previous post.

I heard loud and clear that last week was challenging for many motorists encountering LRT on the south side, especially those who use 51 Avenue.

The transportation department remains focused on optimizing the performance of all intersections along 111 Street.

However, we all need to accept that these intersections will not operate like they did before the LRT opened.

The wait for left turns and east/west-bound traffic will be longer all up and down 111 Street. This was not a traffic engineering error.

The disruptions we saw at 51 Avenue last week were clearly the result of an error. Fortunately, last week’s traffic was moving better after a significant change to the signal timing.

I personally visited 51 Avenue several times during the first part of the week to see the problems for myself and understand the transportation department’s approach to the problem.

On the bright side, travelling north/south will be faster since that is the dominant flow of traffic and trains. In fact, a number of constituents have told me their commute by car up 111 Street is faster than before the train opened.

One way to think about this is that opening LRT is like building a six-lane freeway in terms of its capacity to move people, so when you’re crossing 111 Street in a sense it’s like crossing the equivalent of a 10-12 lane road.

Many have contacted me to ask why the major intersections were not tunneled under or bridged over, and the decision was made during the planning phase based on computer modeling of each intersection. Each grade separation costs millions to implement, and cause more serious disruption so they are used very sparingly.

Other citizens have asked whether the experience at these intersections will change the city’s intentions to run the new southeast-to-west line on the surface, including through downtown.

This is a fair question that we will have to explore. The initial plans involve limiting many of the left turns, which wasn’t done on the South LRT.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions at 780-496- 8132 or at don.iveson@edmonton.ca.