Potholes 2013: Triage and Beyond
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.
We are making better progress on our residential side streets, investing over $130 million this year in a combination of total reconstruction of broken streets and sidewalks as well as preventive maintenance and repaving to get full life and value out of our newer infrastructure.
However, the backlog is so deep that there are neighbourhoods in need of immediate total reconstruction that are still 5-10 years away. Therefore, this past week I suggested, and Council agreed, that we have a need for some extra attention on our worst local roads as well. ‘Triage’ was the word I used after responding to constituent invitations to see some of the more abysmal conditions.
Needs vary by ward, but I have several neighbourhoods that are a long way off from getting reconstruction, and will need something more aggressive than patching along the worst areas. And so Council allocated some $9 million for triage of local roads this season.
I’m not satisfied with triage. It’s necessary because we are still behind, and because the weather this past season has been so difficult. Long term, we need to dedicate a greater share of our limited infrastructure funding to properly looking after what’s already built.
For now, please stay alert and keep reporting potholes to 311 or on-line.
.: Thanks for this update, Don. I cannot recall a worse pothole spring season in the 34 years I’ve lived in Edmonton. In some areas it’s approaching Code Red! I live near the stretch of 23 Ave from Saddleback Road to 111 ST, and the combination of some patchwork done so far along with remaining potholes there is making the road a serious pain to navigate. A long term permanent solution is definitely necessary.
I live in Allendale… on 108st!
Woot Woot! I’m a celebrity : )
A couple of points:
1. An in-depth analysis of why our roads deteriorate so quickly is required. It may be because Edmonton does not remove snow from our road ways the way it was done during the 70s and 80s. The freeze/thaw process of this snow may be adding to road damage (pot holes). Concrete and/or asphalt do not perform well when water does not drain quickly off it.
2. The structural design for new and existing Edmonton roads needs to be extensively reviewed. Something is wrong with the present design. My back alley was rebuilt when a new water line was installed in 2000. After about 2 years the alley started to deteriorate with sections and catch basin lids sinking, which caused water to sit every spring. Now the asphalt has bad cracks and water just sits in the sunken locations.
Surely engineering technology today has the ability to overcome Edmonton substructure challenges such as being located on an old lake bed and filled in swamps. We need to construct better even if it costs more to do it right.
Regards,
Dwayne Robertson
Please refocus money and attention away from fixing and building the roads that are solely designed to move people through neighbourhoods (e.g. from suburbs to downtown). Commit first to projects that encourage living near work, leisure, and shopping. Stop promising to make faster commutes; if the culture of driver entitlement is weakened, many of the road problems will go away on their own.
where are you going to earn the money to build the roads
In addition to what Dwayne says, the city is merely treating the symptom, and not the problem. You cannot just keep putting a bandaid over a gunshot wound. You cannot keep putting in road material that works for the southern US, in Alberta!
Surely if engineers can design satellites, aircraft, and seedless watermelon, someone can design proper material to use for our roads. Make, design, purchase – whatever it takes – real roadworthy material that won’t have holes, and then you won’t have to keep filling them!
Further to previous comments, the primary cause of road surface failure can be attributed to the the policies adopted by the City maintenance as directed by those in charge. There is a fine line between road safety and winter maintenance. We live in a city in a northern latitude but are trying to facilitate travel time as if we live in Northern California. This will destroy our road infrastructure faster than we can repair and very quickly bankrupt the transportation budget.
We have to stop the removal of snow with salt and sand! With the policy a few years ago of reducing the size of the city work force in snow removal and focus more on a Contractor snow removal we our selves have facilitated the problem. This is very simply a matter of contractor economics. It costs the contractor more to lower the snow blade than to spread salt and sand (and recently a more concentrated mix of salt). If the blade is lowered, at the end of the shift the worn bade must be removed and replaced…….a costly thing in time and material. So in the name of safety the contractor is instructed to sand all roads and intersections at the first sign of the white stuff and sand and sand and sand. This first got the notice of the public a few years ago when the crews were instructed to do some “SNOW” removal in the residential areas of the city. There was about a foot of hard pack on all residential streets. When they hit the streets to do the snow removal in the usual way with salt and sand, the hard pack turned to corn snow much deeper and many residents were immediately getting stuck around there homes. What a mess. A task force was assembled, a survey was sent out and a new policy for residential streets was established all at the expense of a focus on the arterial road ways.
This has been further complicated by the fact that we have changed from a 9am to 5pm city to a 5am to 9pm city, many arterials are congested and many new workers are crossing the city daily.
So what should our Transportation Department do? Have a liquid slurry of salt and sand through the freeze thaw cycle throughout our winter and destroy our transportation infrastructure facilitating the speeding that that goes on during rush hour. I think not! We must reeducate our drivers and maintain our winter roads as in the past, before we encouraged all this unsustainable growth. We must reduce the winter liquid on our streets and seal the road surface to protect against absorption through cracks into the subsurface. The current situation with cracks and unsealed patching that is the state of affairs throughout the city will make the 2013 winter freeze thaw an even more critical blow against the repair budget.
As an aside, I did by the way respond at length to the Snow survey a few years ago outlining the problem with possible solutions and have tried to contact alderman more recently at the city because of my concerns but have been ignored.
Nevermind the potholes thats the least of my concerns! When are we going to fix the whole street structure so you can actually drive on them instead of stopping every block. and while we are at it installing some realistic speed limits! Or would that distract too much from our on going texting and phone conversations. and a city this size that does not know what a turning lane is! Its beyond hopeless!