City of Winnipeg on track for road work so far this year

Some drivers have been roadblocked by construction so far this year, but if there’s any good news, it’s that the City of Winnipeg says they’re on track this year when it comes to the progress of road work.

The city says they have work planned in about 200 locations this construction season with no major delays at this point.

“Those include larger streets, individual local streets, residential streets, some sidewalk locations and pathways as well,” said Michelle Stainton, project management engineer for the city’s public works department.

About 10-15 per cent of projects last year were carried over, representing about 10-20 locations, according to Stainton.

She expects that number to be reduced this year.

“Our program is a little bit scaled back from last year just in terms of the number of locations. The budget had been a little bit smaller because one of our major programs, the Accelerated Regional Streets [Renewal] Program, funded by the federal and provincial governments has wrapped up,” said Stainton.

For projects that go beyond their completion date, the city says contractors responsible for them do face penalties.

“Liquidated damages are what it’s called. Its an estimate of the cost to the city for the contract to go over. They are given a certain amount of time, if they go over by that number of days they will need to pay a certain amount per day.”

According to the city, they use both concrete and asphalt on roads but adjust the mix they use regularly to improve road performance.

“It’s a vicious cycle. If you do not do permanent and durable repair work you have to spend tax dollars every few years to do that same job, to keep the road useable,” explained Kamal Hossain, an associate professor in transportation engineering at Carleton University.

“Look at Winnipeg, huge amount of population increase over the last ten years. The traffic has increased significantly in most major cities in Canada, but most of the roads were built decades ago,” Hossain added.

The city says they plan on having construction season wrap up by mid-October, but that is weather-dependent.