City council has agreed in principle to put more money in the streets.
Around 47.7 per cent of the city’s roads are currently in good or very good shape according to a report by Thunder Bay’s engineering department presented Monday night. That’s below the province’s 52 per cent average. Just to maintain that number, the city needs to be spending $12 million on pavement by 2014. Although administration has been recommending $10 million for roads every year since 2005, that goal has only been met once.
"That means we’re not catching the roads when we need to be catching them," said city project engineer Mike Vogrig.
Vogrig’s report split the city’s road into three categories. Maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction. The number of roads needing complete reconstruction is increasing every year and actually costs the city 250 per cent more than if it spent the recommended amount to maintain roads.
"It’s obvious we haven’t spent enough on roads," Coun. Trevor Giertuga said. "We need to bite the bullet and get our roads back in shape."
Coun. Mark Bentz said he’s not happy with the city’s road and that council should look into spending more than the recommended $12 million.
"We’re really injecting a lot of capital and it’s just holding its own," Bentz said.
But city engineering manager Pat Mauro said spending more wouldn’t help because there simply wouldn’t be enough labour or supplies to do anymore than the recommended amount.
"It will take some time to get to that level of resources," Mauro said.
While all councillors agreed that more money needed to be spent on roads, Coun. Aldo Ruberto wanted to know what the increase would mean to taxpayers. City transportation and works manager Darrell Matson said that would depend on how much the city can get from other levels of government.
"It depends on what’s available to us," Matson said.
The recommendation would see the city increase capital expenditures by $5 million over three years until it was spending $12 million in 2014. The report also stated that the increase would be separate from projects such as the expansion of Golf Links Road and Junot Avenue.
Although council agreed in principle to the recommendation, how much the city spends on roads will be determined during budget deliberations.
