THOMPSON, MB – Maple Leaf Construction crews started prep work for summer road paving on Thompson roads May 30.
Construction workers began curb removal and base work on a section of Juniper Drive and the entirety of Fox Bay and Elk Bay, with plans to move on and continue that process on Beaver Crescent, Coral Crescent, Caribou Road, Deerwood Drive, Lynx Street, Nelson Road, Spruce Road, Thompson Drive and Wolf Street over the course of the summer.
Just over six kilometres of local roads are scheduled to be paved this summer, the second year of a five-year road renewal program supported by the federal and provincial governments through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).
This year’s planned paving covers the first two years of the five-year road renewal plan, with the City of Thompson responsible for 16.67 per cent of the overall $40 million budget and the remaining portion funded by the provincial and federal governments.
The tender for the 2022 portion was awarded to Maple Leaf Construction last September, though the company advised that it would not be able to begin the work until this spring due to their resource levels at the time. That contract is for the broads in the Deerwood and Burntwood areas as well as Nelson Road from Mystery Lake to Station Road.
Maple Leaf was also the successful bidder for this year’s paving contract, which covers about 2.53 kms of roadway on Deerwood drive, Juniper Drive, Spruce Road and Thompson Drive from Mystery Lake Road to Lynx Street. The cost for this portion is about $5.9 million, compared to approximately $6.77 million for the 2022 portion.
The combined cost for the first two years of the road renewal work, including design and engineering services from AECOM, is just over $14 million.
Goals of the five-year road renewal program, planned to improve about 20 kms on 24 Thompson roads, approximately one-fifth of the city’s streets, includes reducing the frequency of potholes developing on the repaved roads every spring.
Maple Leaf’s concrete crew is expected to arrive in Thompson and begin work by the end of June. There is no confirmed schedule yet for when the company’s milling machine and asphalt plant will arrive in Thompson to begin repaving, says Lyle Safronetz, the director of development and technical services for the City of Thompson.
This summer‘s paving will be the city’s first in three years, as none was completed last year or the year before, while in 2020 it was limited to the eastbound lanes of Thompson Drive North between Quartz Street and Mystery Lake Road.
“Other levels of government covering the vast majority of the costs for this year’s substantial roadwork is giving Thompson taxpayers more bang for their buck than if the city had to pay for all of these road repairs on its own,” said Mayor Colleen Smook. “It also enables Thompson to complete far more paving over five years than it otherwise could without either raising taxes or borrowing.”
A 2017 budget survey conducted by the City of Thompson found that road maintenance and improvement were important to many of the respondents. Three of the top five priorities that the survey revealed concerned city roads, including snow clearing, line painting, pothole patching, and road renewal and paving.