The City of Quesnel completed five overlay paving projects this year, including streets in north and west Quesnel.
Chris Coben, the city’s director of capital works and infrastructure, provided an update on the overlay paving completed in 2020 at the Nov. 24 council meeting.
Five sites were completed during this season’s work program within a budget of $375,000, he explained. The paving is funded through the city’s capital reinvestment program.
“These roads were chosen based on factors including road base condition, status of underground utilities, ongoing maintenance requirements, and traffic volumes,” said Coben.
The five sites paved in 2020 were St. Laurent Avenue from Kinchant to Vaughn, the 200 block of Kinchant St., the 100 block of Kinchant to Moffat Bridge Approach and the 10 block of McLean, Brownmiller Road north of the CN crossing to Highway 97, and the section of Lewis Drive from Anderson north.
Coben says Blair Street was also identified and scheduled for paving, but this was cancelled due to weather conditions late in the season.
In his report to council, Coben explained the focus has been on higher-traffic main roads within the city, followed by roads around schools and businesses and then into residential neighbourhoods.
The city has been investigating and utilizing alternative methods to maintain and pave roads, including using an asphalt base course with larger aggregated, followed by an overlay of asphalt.
“This comes at a higher construction cost than a traditional overlay; however, the cost is substantially less than a full rebuild,” he writes. “Another alternative is to cap and level course roads with a thin overlay in order to seal the road surface.”
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