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Asphalt tender approved by Yorkton Council

Current funding level means a 160-year replacement cycle
City hall

Yorkton Council was given an update on the City’s 2021 Asphalt Paving Program at its regular meeting Monday.

The 2021 roadway improvements includes 50,500 square metres of asphalt milling and resurfacing at various locations throughout the City.

Four tenders were received, and the recommendation was unanimously approved Monday to Fedorowich Construction Ltd. for $1,286,280.

Trent Mandzuk C Director of Public Works with City said funding for the tender would come from multiple sources.

In 2020 the City of Yorkton received $2 million in funding from the Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP) intended for investment in municipal infrastructure. Of that $1.5 million of the MEEP funding and $560,000 from the City’s operational budget (surfaced streets contracted services) has been allocated to roadway improvements for 2021.

This will allow the City to triple the size of its annual paving for the 2021 construction season, he said.

As background Mandzuk explained “the City of Yorkton has approximately 140 kilometers of paved roads within its jurisdiction having a total surface area of approximately 1.72 million square meters. These lengths and areas include all lanes and both directions of travel but do not include back lanes and alleyways.”

Ongoing condition assessments of our City’s roadways are based on ASTM international Standard Practice for Roads and Parking Lots Pavement Condition Index surveys.

“The standardized method rates the surface condition of each roadway segment by evaluating the type, extent and severity of pavement surface distresses, as well as smoothness and ride comfort of the road,” explained Mandzuk.

At the end of the assessment, a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) value is determined providing a numerical rating for the condition of a road segment where 0 is the worst possible condition and 100 is the best.

Best practice suggests the collection of PCI ratings at regular intervals (3-5 years) to best monitor roadway network performance and to determine the rate of deterioration.

“This helps evaluate the effectiveness of pavement materials and designs, as well as the effectiveness of maintenance strategies,” said Mandzuk.

Over the past 10 years, the City of Yorkton has conducted two roadway assessments with the most recent being completed in 2018.

A large percentage of City’s roadways currently fall under the ‘fair’ condition rating,” explained a report to Council.

“It should be noted that over the next 10 years all of these roads will shift to ‘poor’ condition,” said Mandzuk.

At that time over 70 per cent of residential roadways will become problematic as will 60 per cent of the entire roadway network.

“These statistics become more concerning when we recognize the replacement value of our City’s roadway network is $89,921,037 (based on 2019 pricing),” detailed the Report.

“The existing operational budget for the City’s overlay program is $560,000 which provides for a 160-year replacement cycle. In the last couple years, aggressive overlay programs have increased the scope of historical programs by more than double in efforts to tackle poor roadway conditions in high traffic areas.”

However, caution needs to be exercised to avoid overinvesting in future asphalt overlay programs prematurely, warned Mandzuk, adding 2022 and 2023 underground inspection programs need to be fully executed prior to future asphalt overlay programs commencing.

“Priority streets designated to receive asphalt overlays have been identified for the next five years and beyond but underground assessments are failing to keep pace with recent paving programs,” noted the report.