Prince George Citizen - PG Roads in Deplorable Condition

I suppose I need not point out the obvious disintegrating condition of the roads here in PG, but I thought it warranted a comment at least.

How many others share the burden of maneuvering around Grand Canyon sized potholes on their way to work every day? Few roads have been paved when all are in need of work. Instead, we get some menial patch jobs that innundate us with excessive loose gravel which results in another trip to the local glass shop. As an example, the patch work done in the BCR area didn't even adequately fill the two largest potholes the road had to offer. "Thorough" apparently isn't in the equation.

Apparently, fuel taxes are to pay for roads and infrastructure. And now with the escalating price in fuel, there shouldn't be any shortage in government coffers to pay for road maintenance. Since politicans parade they're doing something to justify their pay cheque, we need to put the pressure on them to utilize the money we pay in taxes to repair our roads on an annual basis. There shouldn't be any reason why some roads are neglected and haven't had any maintenance whatsoever for consecutive years. The Federal government claims that the Provincial government garners more revenue from fuel taxes than they do, however both should be expected to contribute.

If they don't concede and allocate the funds to where they were originally planned, they can simply drop the taxes altogether. We should not be paying road taxes if the roads remain in such decrepit condition. And we should no longer tolerate such political decay and fiscal malfeasance to avoid accountability.

Boom.
written by allniter , July 01, 2008 (01:16:07 PM)

Well said, Andres, well said. We keep hearing about how BC is booming, yet when one just takes a walk, one can see how bad the roads are--you'd think it was the Great Depression--and I'm not embellishing!

My area is actually one of the better ones, road-wise, but there are huge cracks appearing everywhere. However, when I walk on one of the main thoroughfares, I find myself wondering how people can drive on them! I daresay that driver's attention is being diverted to watching what's coming up underneath their wheels!

The boom seems to be concentrated in the Province Of Vancouver, while the only "boom" here is the one you hear when some poor driver blows a tire.

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Asphalt Costs
written by Pylot Project , July 02, 2008 (10:40:45 PM)

I think I might have an idea as to why our roads seem to be left in bad condition... the current price of asphalt.

Asphalt is sometimes found naturally but most often it's the by-product of refining crude oil to gasoline. Most HMA (Hot Mix Asphalt) pavement use 4 - 8 percent asphalt. In 2002, that was 25 - 30 percent of the cost of HMA paving. We all know what has happened to the price of crude since then. RAP (Recycled Asphalt Paving) is a cost effective alternative but still requires the use of some new asphalt for the old aggregate to bind properly.

From 2005 to 2006, the cost of crude rose about 5 percent, but the cost of asphalt was disproportionate.... it doubled in price. In June 2006, the Globe and Mail reported "cash-strapped municipalities are being forced to scale back or delay road work because liquid asphalt, the glue that holds roads together, has doubled in price to $500 a tonne in the past year. Some contractors expect further price hikes of $100 in coming months."

In July 2005, asphalt was $253.53 per tonne. Today it's $688.94 per tonne. That is a 272 percent increase in three years. As much as our taxes keep going up, I don't think we've been hit with an increase of that magnitude. Like a lot of cities across North America, our city officials likely didn't prepare for such a volatile increase in paving costs. Add on the new carbon tax to city equipment laying down the pavement, it's become a bumpy road for city street maintenance costs.

In the past, I've given a number of snide comments in this forum about the lack of road repair. After researching this material, I think I will give the city a bit of slack for now.

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written by travhops , July 03, 2008 (05:45:02 AM)

Very interesting Pylot and see you've done your research. I'm sure it is true to some extent but no one can contest PG is in a deplorable state. Compare it to other cities, who even with rising costs, have managed to maintain their streets. I think what it boils down to here is priorities and street maintenance is definitely not a high priority in PG. I can't even imagine how difficult it is to drive a car through this mess. I know I blew a wheelchair tire climbing out of a pothole a while back. This has gone past annoying, something to joke about, to just plain dangerous. These potholes have been years in the making. Doing the pothole swerve is dangerous.

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