Street line painting isn't over in Prince George.
A new contractor has been hired to finish the work left incomplete when the city cancelled the two-year contract with R&N Western Maintenance after less-than parallel lines were laid down earlier this summer.
The contract with the Alberta arm of a pavement marking company headquartered in Guelph, Ont., was set to expire in April 2017 with an option to extend it for another year. It was terminated at the end of June and the public works department also negotiated a 15-per-cent reduction in the bill.
About 95 per cent of the work was done by the time R&N was let go, said city roads and fleet manager Blake McIntosh. Lines also need to be painted on roads which have been newly paved, such as Tyner Boulevard.
Yellowhead Pavement Marking, which had the street-line painting contract last year, has been brought back to do that work.
The contract wasn't put to a new bid, but procurement staff went to the company which had submitted a bid during the initial process in the spring and negotiated a new price, McIntosh said.
Any wobbly lines that can be fixed or touched up would be addressed by Yellowhead, but most will have to wait until the paint wears off through normal wear.
"It's the nature of the beast," McIntosh said. "Once the paint's down it's difficult to correct."
Yellowhead should be on the job in early or mid September, McIntosh said, adding staff are still in discussions about whether a pilot project will go ahead to perform touch ups on street lines in the fall before the snow flies.
