A majority of the Grand Forks’ residents voted in favour of supporting borrowing to repair various pieces of city infrastructure via referendum in last year’s municipal election.
Of 1,168 voters, 791 (about 68 per cent) cast yes ballots for a question regarding borrowing a maximum of $1.3 million for emergency water supply.
A question regarding borrowing $4.2 million to repair roads, water and sewer infrastructure saw an even bigger majority, with about 73 per cent (855 out of 1,175) saying “Yea.”
At a council meeting last week, the city received a presentation from Michael Trickey and Strategic Infrastructure Management Inc. regarding the status of the city’s roads.
According to Trickey, of the approximate 70 kilometres of roads in Grand Forks, 10 kilometres are in good condition, 38 are in fair condition (though they will become a concern as time passes) and 22 kilometres are in poor shape.
Trickey also suggested that roads that had about five to 10 years left that had cracks could be sealed up – he said sealing up the cracks would mean the city wouldn’t have to resurface for a while and the savings could go towards other infrastructure renewal projects.
That seems sensible and even though the city will be borrowing, it can’t go on a spending free-for-all. After all, the money will be borrowed and will have to be paid back and while the amounts approved via referendum might seem like a lot, they will quickly dwindle if not managed properly.
However, isn’t crack sealing a bandage solution? While sealing up cracks on roads with some mileage left will save money, the roads will eventually need to be resurfaced or reconstructed anyways.
What costs $88 per square metre now most certainly won’t be $88 per square metre five, 10 or however many years from now when the roads fail. If that were to occur Grand Forks would be right back to square one and money would again have to be spent, albeit at an increased cost.