Charlottetown streets may get fixed faster this year

The city of Charlottetown wants to do something a bit different to get streets fixed up quicker this spring.

The public works and beautificationCommittee hassuggestedthe work go out in two tenders instead of one.

This year the budget for resurfacing was almost doubled from $2.2 million to $4 million because of the extra road work needed after the storm sewer separation project was completed.

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More money and a special anniversarymade it a good year to look at doing two tenders said the committee chair, Coun.Terry Bernard.

"This year being double the budget we're looking to go out for two tenders and so we're hoping to get the work done a lot quicker," he said

"It's the year we're celebrating the 150th anniversary and we don't want a number of our roads downtown tore open and left open for a while so we wanted to try and get the roads completed as quickly as possible. "

Staff estimatedto the committee that each tender would go for around $1.75 million, with the idea being that two crews could work simultaneously to cut down on the time it takes to fix up the streets after a hard winter.

One of the worst winters

And this winter has been particularly hard on streets because of all the freeze-thaw events P.E.I. has seen.

"I've been at this for quite a few years and I can say this is probably the worst I've seen," he said

"A number of roads are in very poor condition. The freeze-thaw cycle, the salt getting into the cracks when it is heaved it's been really bad this year. So not a bad year to have the budget increased for street resurfacing cause there's going to be a lot of streets that are going to need to be repaired and repaired properly."

Bernard saidthree city crews are already working on fixing up the roads full time, but with winter not over just yet, they have to roll with the punches.

"We just have to cope with it the best we can." he said.

There is no word on when the tender process will begin.

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