Westlock County councillors have raised concerns about how and when the county’s roads are being graded, graveled and repaired.
Council passed several motions at the July 22 meeting directing administration to look into and/or alter the way some of the infrastructure work is being done with respect to graveling and road repairs.
The quality of the county’s infrastructure is an issue that’s very important to residents, reeve Bud Massey said, with all councillors having heard concerns from residents during the last election.
“Council would like to have an improvement in the way we manage our roads, the grading we do on our roads and the reconstruction we do on our roads,” he said.
Councillors raised three specific issues related to the county’s roadways: how the soft spots in the roads are repaired, the timeliness of construction/repair projects and dewatering the county’s gravel pit.
Council passed a motion directing administration to repair soft spots by digging out the hole and “fix them properly,” with a specific emphasis on the county’s resource roads. Currently, the process is to use a larger-sized gravel to pack into the holes, addressing the soft spots that way.
Interim director of operations Roy Lidgren cautioned councillors making that change might come with a price tag.
“That tends to be a slower process and tends to be much more expensive,” he explained.
Interim CAO Rick McDonald said after the meeting that administration would make some of the repairs as specified by council and bring back more information about the cost and effectiveness of that method, but expressed skepticism it would be the best approach.
Soft spots are often caused by something underneath the road, which is usually water. If you dig out the holes, put in a liner and pack in new material, the water will usually find another way around and could cause a soft spot right next to the one you just fixed.
“To dig them out and replace them takes a considerable amount more money and doesn’t always provide the result you’re looking for,” he said.
Council passed another motion directing administration to begin work on some of the projects outlined in the 2014 budget, making specific reference to work on township roads 612, 602 and 585.
“We have lost nearly half the construction season,” Massey said. “It’s not a criticism of our employees, it’s criticism of the fact those projects haven’t been initiated.”
McDonald said he felt there was still plenty of time left in the construction season to get the projects in the 2014 budget completed, adding that some of the projects council referred to aren’t in fact in this year’s budget.
“I would say it might be their observation, their opinion, but it doesn’t bear out in terms of what I see as the requirements that are needed and agreed to in the budget and the timeframe we have left,” he said. “I think we’ll get them done.”
Another issue of contention is the process of dewatering the county’s gravel pit — if the gravel is pulled out wet and not given enough time to dry out properly, it freezes into chunks in the winter. It can stay in those chunks when it’s spread out on the roads during the winter gravel haul, which can ultimately lead to damage to vehicles driving on the county’s roadways.
McDonald said the timeline for dewatering the gravel pit and getting the gravel dried out is certainly pressing, but emphasized the process must take place following the licensing requirements set out by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.
“We’re working on it; we have a contact in with SRD and we’ve contacted them to see where we’re at with out permit,” he said. “They know we have this time frame.”
Massey said despite the fact council has made some motions directing administration on some of the specific operations of the county — typically something a council would delegate to administration — this is not a case of council trying to micro-manage.
“We are definitely not trying to micromanage. Our concern is that we are to set the standards, and some of the work is not being performed to the standards that previous councils have set,” he said. “We’re hoping that by making the motions, that we would encourage administration to increased action.”
