MOOSE JAW — City hall wants to replace nearly 1,400 square metres of sidewalks, gutters and curbs this year but will require an extra half-million dollars to do it.
During its March 24 regular meeting, city council voted unanimously to authorize the engineering services branch to transfer $550,000 from the paved roads budget to the sidewalk, curb and gutter budget.
The branch budgeted $3.35 million this year to repave and upgrade roads, while it budgeted $950,000 to enhance sidewalks, curbs and gutters. The transfer means those numbers will become $2.8 million and $1.5 million, respectively.
While the city does replace some sidewalks when repaving roads, it also focuses solely on rehabilitating sidewalks, curbs and gutters.
The city plans to upgrade 10 streets — and their related sidewalks — this year, based on their poor pavement condition ratings, a council report said.
Those locations include:
- 13th Avenue Northwest from Montgomery to Albert, Albert to Carleton and Carleton to Grace, including 495 metres of asphalt and 975 square metres of concrete
- 16th Avenue 麻豆传媒AVwest from Coteau to Duffield and Duffield to Vaughan, including 285 metres of asphalt and 50 square metres of concrete
- Fourth Avenue Northwest from Caribou to Hochelaga, Hochelaga to Athabasca, Athabasca to Stadacona and Stadacona to Ominica, including 325 metres of asphalt and 458 square metres of concrete
- Main Street North from River to Manitoba, including 100 metres of asphalt
- Coteau Street West from 12th to 11th, including 185 metres of asphalt and 22 square metres of concrete
- First Avenue Northwest from Saskatchewan to MacDonald, including 180 metres of asphalt
- Main Street alley west from River to Manitoba, including 80 metres of asphalt
- Thatcher Drive East from Ninth Avenue Northwest to Highway 1, including 390 metres of asphalt
- Ninth Avenue Northwest from the railway at Normandy Drive to Thatcher Drive, including 390 metres of asphalt
- Ninth Avenue Northwest from Thatcher to Westpark, Westpark to Paul/Iris and Paul/Iris to Highway 1, including 1,385 metres of asphalt
Meanwhile, city hall plans to replace 1,350.54 square metres of sidewalks, curbs and gutters in 150 locations.
Administration’s comments
Bevan Harlton, director of operations, made it clear that without the transfer of $550,000, none of this extra work would be possible, so he thought “this was the best way forward.”
Removing this money from the paved roads budget means city hall will address 300 to 500 fewer metres this year, he continued. Furthermore, not transferring this money may challenge the city’s ability to upgrade other road locations since the worst roads also have the worst sidewalks.
Harlton pointed out that there are four major sites that city hall didn’t include in this year’s repair plan since the cost to upgrade the roads is $965,000 and the cost for the adjacent sidewalks is $1,472,000.
He added that his department has transferred money between these accounts before so both initiatives could be completed.
In response, Coun. Patrick Boyle said, “… my immediate reaction is, it’s really hard for me to tell the citizens of Moose Jaw (that) I took $550,000 away from paving more roads when I think that’s an interest for many people … .”
Streets and alleys
With 13th Avenue, Coun. Heather Eby preferred to see the city repave the road and upgrade the sidewalks simultaneously instead of returning later to upgrade the latter and, in the process, damage the former.
“We can’t do everything … . We’d all love to see all the roads done at one time, but that’s not possible,” she continued, noting that 13th Avenue has been a “long-standing sore point” for many people.
Eby also inquired about repaving the Main Street alley behind the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, saying that area “is a disaster.”
Harlton answered by saying upgrading that alley would be the first major capital investment that city hall had made downtown, while it was something he wanted to expand in the future.
“There are some sidewalks that are just horrendous and bad,” said Mayor James Murdock. “Roads, sidewalks, the city needs all of them.”
The mayor then asked whether city hall had considered using its reclaimed asphalt to build up alleys to two inches of new pavement.
Administration’s preference is to maintain paved alleys downtown, but it never submitted a proposal during the 2025 budget talks to use that material since other initiatives took precedence, said Harlton. So, he will consider that suggestion and bring forward a proposal.
Coun. Dawn Luhning agreed that parts of 13th Avenue have “been horrible” for years, while it seemed as if the city had upgraded that road five times in the last decade since it “never seems to be right.” She wondered if cast iron pipes were under that street that needed to be removed.
There is always a risk that the city may have to rip out cast iron pipes after paving a road, but it usually checks pipes, repairs them, and even replaces them before paving, said Harlton. The big risk is property owners wanting their service connections replaced after the city has paved their roads.
“I don’t see any infrastructure imminent risk to dig up 13th Avenue once we pave it, so that’s why we’ve put it forward,” he continued, noting his department has no plans to replace the cast iron on that street.
Harlton added that the city wasn’t replacing every sidewalk on both sides of 13th Avenue since it would need to first conduct separate condition assessments to determine the walkways’ deficiencies.
One sidewalk versus two
Luhning pointed out that new subdivisions have only one sidewalk while older areas have two and wondered whether administration had considered maintaining only one walkway in older areas since the city lacked the money to maintain everything.
“I’m not saying that we do that, I’m just looking at options,” she added.
Harlton replied that while it was a good suggestion, he wasn’t sure how popular that decision would be. However, it’s something the city could ponder for future designs.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, April 7.
