Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
The City of Regina is trying a new technique to extend the life of the city’s roadways.
The city rolled out a new method of sealing pavement on Tuesday.
“They rejuvenate the asphalt by adding asphalt back into it in asphalt compounds to extend the life of the road,” said Norman Kyle, the city’s director of roadways and transportation.
The treatment is meant to prevent cracks and erosion by keeping moisture from getting into the road surface.
Kyle said it’s similar to using a facial cream to get rid of wrinkles.
“As you age you get wrinkles so you put on a moisturizer to keep elasticity in your skin. Pavement’s like that too, it’s flexible. So over time with the sun hitting it, it oxidizes it, it takes some of the flexibility out of it, this builds that flexibility back in and that’s what helps extend the life.”
The technique only works on roads that have minor cracks.
The project will cost $350,000, which the city is taking from its existing paving maintenance budget. The city will be treating about 260,000 square metres of pavement at 20 locations this year. The process takes about four hours to complete before vehicles can be allowed back on the road.
The treated pavement will be evaluated over the next year to determine how well it has held up.
So far in 2017, 20 kilometres of road preservation work was has been completed. Forty-seven per cent of planned projects have been completed.
Here’s an up to date list of road closures.
Water main breaks high in 2017
The dry summer has caused a lot of ground movement, leading to metre fires and water main breaks.
July saw 66 instances of water main breaks throughout the month. The average is six.
“While crews have been busy with these breaks, they have also replaced one kilometre of water mains, 300 metres of cast iron mains and re-lined 3.5 kilometres of water pipes,” Mayor Michael Fougere said.
