CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The City of Charlottetown will spend $2.5 million to pave all or part of 38 to 40 streets this year.
After a brutal winter with a number of freeze-thaw cycles, there is no shortage of need out there to fix broken pavement and deep potholes.
“Staff has surveyed the streets that are on our list to be done, and they do worst-to-first,’’ said Coun. Mike Duffy, chairman of the public works committee, referring to the process the city goes through in choosing which streets get asphalt.
Queen Street is right at the top of the city’s list in terms of stretches of road that are in terrible shape.
“That is on the list to be done,’’ Duffy said. “That’s all porous land out there. There is no base whatsoever, and that’s why it breaks up so easily.’’
Paving crews will be out tending to Queen Street completing two sections of the road by June 28 — Kirkwood Drive to Douglas Street and Nassau Street to Kirkwood Drive.
Fitzroy Street is also on the list right away. Crews will be paving that section of the street that stretches from Prince Street to Queen Street.
Also on the immediate list is Church Street, from Grafton to Richmond streets; Grafton Street, from Queen to Prince streets; and Kent Street, from Edward to Esher streets.
The city’s budget for street paving this year falls about in the middle of what it has spent in recent years past. In 2016, the budget was about $2 million while close to $4 million was spent in 2017.
All or a portion of the following streets are also on the city’s paving list for 2019:
To be completed by Sept. 20
- Gordon Drive
- Wilmont Lane
- Wedgewood Avenue
- Champion Court
- Belfast Street
- Doc Blanchard Crescent
- East Royalty Road
- Dawson Court
- Smallwood Crescent
- Greenfield Avenue
- Melody Lane
- Northridge Parkway
- Hillsborough Street
- Cooper Avenue
- Silverwood Drive
- Russet Drive
To be completed between Sept. 1 to Oct. 25
- Skyview Drive
- Belvedere Avenue
- Chestnut Street
- Lower Malpeque Road
- Beach Grove Road
- Connolly Street
- Watts Avenue
- Schurman Street
- Dorchester Street
It should be noted that some of that $4 million was to address streets that were left in disrepair due to work by the water and sewer separation project.
“It’s down, not quite half of what it was, but it’s darn close,’’ Duffy acknowledged. “I know there’s potholes, everyone knows there’s potholes, and they occur in pretty well the same places every year because of what’s underneath ... no good base.’’
The list of streets to be done between June 28 and Aug. 15 includes Vic Campbell Boulevard, from Palmers Lane to MacKay Drive; Pleasant Street, from Longworth Avenue to Euston Street; Cumberland Street, from Grafton Street to the end; MacKay Drive, from Palmers Lane to Elizabeth Drive; Heather Avenue, from Oak Drive to Pope Avenue; and Coles Drive, from Brackley Point Road to Heather Drive.
The city is now accepting tenders. The closing date is May 30. The city will have three crews out patching streets while the successful bidder will handle the major paving jobs.
“It’s expensive work to be done,’’ Duffy said. “We try to do as much as we can with the amount of money that council allots us each year. We know that people run into some difficulty with potholes during the winter and we try our best ... we try to contain the number of potholes and (address) the size and the depth.’’
Mayor Philip Brown said the city also has $3.3 million in gas tax funding coming its way this year and some of that money could be used to do more city roads.
