MOTORISTS negotiated along a rough stretch of Lakelse Ave. today, the result of a milling machine stripping off a top layer of asphalt.

Crews will next lay down a new layer of asphalt along Lakelse and on other Terrace streets where the milling machine has been at work.

“The milling machine is more precise and it only takes asphalt it doesn’t actually grind it into the road base,” said city roads foreman Henry Craveiro of what’s involved.

While the machine will strip a top layer asphalt, the city will try something different before applying a new layer.

“We”ll apply a glass grid to the paved asphalt and then we will pave over top of that,” said Craveiro. “What the glass grid is supposed to do is reinforce all that stuff below.”

The glass grid is made of a material more like fibre glass, he explained, adding that it acts as a brace for the material underneath it so that cracks from layers of pavement below don’t show up on the surface as easily.

“We hope to see a lot less cracks reflecting through the old asphalt to the new,” he said.

In all, money spent on the fibreglass netting rings in at roughly $80,000 — but Craveiro said he hopes this will save money in the long run.

“The only way to really get rid of (cracks) is to pull the base out,” he explained. “There’s no way we could shut down the downtown for that amount of time.”