By Tyler Marr

City discusses additional roadways for line painting

Nov 6, 2017 | 7:20 PM

Believing additional line painting could improve road safety, city council will examine the costs of increased pavement markings during budget deliberations this month.

Monday, council was presented with the city’s new line painting policy, asked to provide input and select a benchmark as to what streets they would like to see done when the contract goes out for tender in 2018. 

Only main arterials and collector routes are currently covered.

In years past, specific corridors were painted in addition to major arterials, collectors and bus routes. But this practice was dropped as bus routes tend to change and others are low volume routes.

Selecting a clear defining point for which roadways are painted ensures “that each neighbourhood is treated fairly and there is no question why one street is painted over another,” transportation manager Keri Sapsford said during her presentation.

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The first option suggested was to paint any roadway which sees upwards of 1,000 vehicles per day plus arterials and collectors. This would include a long list of corridors, such as McArthur, Branion and Southwood Dr., and could be done for an extra $6,061 per painting annually. The city could also adopt a policy that sees any roads with over 2,000 vehicles per day painted. This would include South Industrial Dr., Southwood Dr. and Seventh St. on top of arterials and collectors and cost an extra $1,436. Placing lines all city roads, according to agenda documents, would add $69,600 to line painting contracts.

There was a strong desire by a number of councillors to increase the number of roadways with lines, with many citing safety concerns. But council had a tough time putting its finger on what roads exactly should be added.

Wanting to “pick a middle ground and see how it goes” was Coun. Dennis Nowoselsky, as he is “getting complaints it is not satisfactory what we are doing now.”

Including bus routes was the middle ground for Coun. Charlene Miller, who suggested the city reach out to the Ministry of Highways to paint 15th St., Second Ave. W. and Sixth Ave. E. as they are highways by definition. 

Coun. Ted Zurakowski was “surprised” selected roads were “solely based on the volume of traffic” and not things like curvature, number of elementary schools, crosswalks and intersections.

“I feel way more safe on 15th St. when it is not painted, then Branion,” he said. “All it takes is paint to increase safety on a road that isn’t straight, that has elementary schools and has a lot of streets entering onto that roadway.”

Heads nodded in agreement to this, with several adding that despite additional lines costing more money, that is just what council was going to have to do. Others also suggested finding a new contractor for 2018, expressing discontent with the latest work.

Administration will take the various recommendations into consideration and present a package on costs during budget talks in the coming weeks.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr