North Bay City Council awarded a $3.7-million contract to Pioneer Construction Inc. for the City of North Bay's 2024 Asphalt Resurfacing Program during its regular meeting on Tuesday.
According to the associated staff report, "Annually, the City tenders for asphalt resurfacing of various roads within the City of North Bay. The rehabilitation works include pulverizing, milling, paving, granular shouldering, and asphalt gutter replacement. The requirements for all asphalt resurfacing work were included in this tender to allow the City to leverage its purchasing power for this work."
The $3.7-million contract includes road rehabilitation, crack sealing and the restoration of the Pete Palangio parking lot (see photo above). It was determined by municipal staff, then presented during budget deliberations, the improvements at Pete Palangio would suffice for the 10 or so years remaining in the twin-pad arena's useful life.
In 2023, the asphalt resurfacing contract was upped to $4.56 million after the reconstruction of McGibbon Street was moved up from 2024. In 2023, 23 stretches of roadway of varying distances were included in the contract, while the 2024 contract will cover 29 areas (see full list below).
Large capital projects such as the reconstruction and resurfacing of Premier Road and the McKeown Avenue four-laning project have separate budget lines from the asphalt resurfacing program. Both are scheduled to get underway this year and wrap up in 2025.
See related: Relief in sight for North Bay's worst road
And: $9.6 million to 4-lane McKeown Ave this summer
The City of North Bay's 2024 Asphalt Resurfacing Program List:
- High Street from McLeod Street – Morin Street
- Bryan Road from Greenhill Avenue – Nottingham Drive
- Sixth Avenue West from Cassells Street – End
- Fourth Avenue West from Cassells Street – Fraser Street
- McIntyre Street West from Durrill Street – Bell Street
- Copeland Street from Harvey Street – Murray Street
- Hammond Street from Haig Street – Dead end
- Knox Court from Gertrude Street East – End
- Memorial Drive from pedestrian crossing at underpass – railway crossing
- McIntyre Street East from John Street – Fisher Street
- Lakeside Drive from Sage Road – Donald Drive
- Eloy Road from Gormanville Road – West side of Miller entrance
- Corbett Street from Lee Avenue – Gladstone Avenue
- Devonshire Avenue from O'Brien Street – McPhail Street
- Dudley Avenue from O'Brien Street – End
- Beattie Street from Elmwood Avenue – Oakwood Avenue
- Stevens Street from Copeland Street – Jane Street
- Elks Lane from Trout Lake Road – Barker Street
- Fricker Court from Pearce Street – End
- Hammond Street from Laurier Avenue – York Street
- McIntyre Street West from Bell Street – Cormack Street
- Junction Street from Lakeshore Drive – Ritchie Avenue
- Beth Avenue from Memorial Drive – Leask Avenue
- Oakwood Avenue from Cedargrove Drive – Clarence Street
- Douglas Street from High Street – Rose Avenue
- Carruthers Street from Moffat Avenue – Dane Avenue
- Moffat Avenue from Harrison Street – Carruthers Street
- Wallace Road from Seymour Street – Commerce Crescent
- Pete Palangio parking lot
Coun. Lana Mitchell, the chair of the infrastructure and operations committee noted the list of candidates for rehabilitation is developed through an established Road Matrix Program that is quantitative and objective and updated on a four- or five-year cycle by a third party.
The roads are driven and scored quantitatively based on the following criteria:
- Riding comfort
- Noise
- Cracking
- Stress
Roads are then ranked based on that score and in conjunction with their traffic usage — is the road arterial, a collector, residential or rural.
The City also utilizes geotechnical analysis, in concert with the classification of the road to inform the type of treatment that will be undertaken. The types of treatments that are normally undertaken through the re-surfacing program include:
- Mill and pave
- Pulverize and pave
- Overlay
- Reconstruct
Typically, major reconstructions are addressed as standalone projects that may also address other linear infrastructural needs.
In addition, as part of the resurfacing program, the City also makes use of an ongoing crack sealing element to extend the life of roadways. The crack sealing program optimizes the life cycle of the roads which reduces the City’s impacts on greenhouse gas footprint and is cost-effective. This is in addition to patching and work on rural roads which also takes place annually.
