City cuts back on road paves as asphalt costs soar

North Bay City Council announced that there will be reductions to their planned asphalt resurfacing this week during their regular meeting.

The city had planned to resurface 46 local roadways but now will see a reduction to 36 as this year’s costs of doing business has increased significantly.

The reason behind this is a 12 percent increase in the cost of asphalt that has the city going back to the drawing board in order to squeeze the most out of their budget.

Obviously disappointed, councillors were straightforward with the announcement but the exact details of which areas will not see scheduled maintenance is not available to the public as of yet.

Approximately 25,000 square kilometres of less asphalt will be laid this year and while the exact linear distance is unknown, the reduction is sure to be felt under the wheels of drivers throughout the city.

Councillor Tanya Vrebosch noted that council actually rely on a third party road surveillance company that drives the city streets and tracks the issues of condition from potholes to rutting and gives each city street a score in each category then compiles a worst score list to be put forward to be repaired.

Think of it as something like a Google earth car for potholes.

Councillor Vrebosch, pointing out that council had to cut from its infrastructure this year nearly a million dollars in expenditures, says that council wishes that they could have kept that money for the repairs lost to the increased costs of road resurfacing.

“I actually don’t know the answer as to why for the 12 percent increase” Vrebosch says, “but this is one area that we’ve always seen a huge increase in.”

Councillors also noted that patching is going on throughout the city as they are holding off major repairs to synergize with underground sewer and water upgrades that are coming to some areas in the near future.

With the asphalt paving tender going out, only two companies bid on the contract, each quoting similar prices and, as for the Province, embroiled in its current political and economic situation, has little concern for the more difficult Northern Ontario climate and its effect on local roadways.

Vrebosch says out that this is a problem every year that council has to wrestle with the accelerated inflation costs of asphalt that are beyond the municipal tax rate increases and often skews back the planned work on the city’s agenda.

“As a council, it’s something that we’ve been trying to invest in” Vrebosch says, “but I hope that when we go through the budget process next time, we look at the reality that 12 percent is what we face this year.”