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Public Works department busy as summer begins

The City of Estevan’s public works division has been working hard on a number of projects in the community.
Public Works pic
Public works crews were working on pothole patching on Cundall Drive on Friday.

The City of Estevan’s public works division has been working hard on a number of projects in the community.

Norm Mack, the manager of roads and drainage for public works, said they have caught up on their projects after a slow start to the year due to the late arrival of spring-like weather.

They have been busy with dust control, line painting, asphalt patches, crack filling, pothole repairs, and sidewalk restoration.

In the case of line painting, they applied the first street line paint midway through the spring, and they have been painting crosswalks and turn lanes.

The majority of the asphalt patches, stemming from water main breaks that occurred during the winter months, are complete. The work will continue into the summer and, if necessary, the fall.

About 50 patches need to be completed this year.

As part of the patches, the sidewalks and the concrete are restored.

Crack filling has been taking place throughout the city. The portions of King Street that were resurfaced last year needed some crack filling, but Mack said that will often happen a year or two after a road is resurfaced.

“It’s the nature of the weather, but our focus is to make sure that any pavement that we do put down, we’re watching it for the first couple of years, and making sure that any hairlines that appear, we’re on top of it to crack-fill it,” said Mack.

About $250,000 has been allocated to sidewalk repairs this year. There were some bad portions on 13th Avenue and Souris Avenue North, he said. Much of the remaining repairs will be concentrated on Second Street and Third Street in west Estevan.

“We’re correcting trip hazards and heaving sidewalks, so we’re replacing a lot of them and trying to maintain our city, and keeping those walks safe,” said Mack.

As part of sidewalk repairs in west Estevan, the city crews make sure the sewer lines are in good shape, so that the repaired sidewalks won’t be dug up in a year or two.

“That’s why we have excavations in the west end of the city, just making sure that sewers are in decent shape,” said Mack.

Repairs to sidewalks will continue into the fall.

He hopes the sidewalk restoration program will be an annual one for the city.

There aren’t any plans to construct new sidewalks, similar to what was done last year on Wellock Road and Mayfair Bay.

New traffic light controllers have been installed on Sixth Street and 13th Avenue as part of the city’s effort to improve traffic lights in the community. A new pole was added for the traffic lights at King Street and Bannatyne Avenue, and pedestrian countdowns with an audible sound have been added to Fifth Street and 12th Avenue.

“Maybe in future years, we’d like to put more audible system for the visually impaired for pedestrians at busy intersections,” said Mack.

The streets are in decent shape this year, he said. The city kept the roads largely clear of snow and ice during the winter months, especially after a large winter storm, which reduced the number of troublesome potholes once spring arrived.

“My big thing is keeping our pavement,” said Mack. “The pavement that we have now, let’s keep it maintained, let’s keep it as good as we can keep it, and let’s try to get some longevity for all of our pavement, whether it’s crack filling or patching, because we know that replacing pavement is an expensive venture.”

Public works also has projects at the Estevan Regional Airport, as it will be crack filling runways and painting lines in July.

And the division has been working to keep the city’s landfill up to provincial regulations, which Mack said is a big task.

“We’re out there many days, making sure that garbage is buried and compacted, and keeping the landfill in good shape,” said Mack.