Five cracked and crumbling city streets chosen for resurfacing

Five Sault Ste. Marie streets have been selected to get sleek new top layers of asphalt in 2024.

"These road sections have been prioritized based on public works maintenance needs, volume of traffic and pavement condition scores from the asset management plan," says Carl Rumiel, the city's director of engineering.

Resurfacing is a simple road maintenance method that places a new layer of material over an existing surface.

Doing this when damage starts to appear, instead of replacing the full road, extends its usable life and maintains it in as safe a condition as possible.

Here's the 2024 resurfacing plan that city councillors are expected to approve next week:

Class A – Asphalt road with curbs and storm sewers

• Wallace Terrace – Goulais Avenue to Korah Road
• Second Line – Goulais Avenue westerly
• St. Georges Avenue – Grand Boulevard to Maple Street

Class C – surface-treated roads

• Cooper Street – Rossmore Road to Korah Road
• Base Line – Airport Road to City Limits

Miscellaneous construction

• Lower Pine Street sidewalk
• temporary flexible traffic calming bollards at various locations

"During the past several budget deliberations the engineering division has requested an increase of $0.5 million to the resurfacing program without success," Rumiel says in a report prepared for Monday's city council meeting.

"Over the years the need to resurface roads has continued to grow and the rising cost of construction has eroded the effectiveness of the program. With the exception of annual inflation, there has been no increase to the resurfacing budget.

"Several arterial and collector roads are in need of new surfaces, requiring funding from the capital transportation program to be redirected to the resurfacing program. This defers essential road reconstruction.

"In the city's asset management plan for roads and bridges, detailed reinvestment needs for rehabilitation such as resurfacing has been calculated to be approximately $5.8 million per year over the next 10 years."

Rumiel says there's $3.9 million that can be accessed for this year's resurfacing program from the city's capital transportation plan and unspent money from previous years.

"Staff will continue to make these annual requests in an attempt to bring the resurfacing program up to an effective level in order to prevent further deterioration of the roads and extend the asset life," he says in his report to Mayor Shoemaker and city councillors.

Monday's city council meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 5 p.m.