A man uses a skid steer in the Nordale area to clear snow recently. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Gravel roads in the city

City finds issues with some gravel roads, Nordale residents hear

Jan 14, 2026 | 1:07 PM

An examination of the condition of Prince Albert’s unpaved roads (which make up about 16 per cent of the 250 km of roads in the city) found some in need of significant repair.

How many will be repaired this year remains undetermined.

Road Manager Evan Hastings updated city council on Monday in front of about a dozen Nordale residents who wrote letters of complaint about the unpaved roads in their neighbourhood and spoke to council about their concerns.

Hasting said that at some point, every road needs structural repair.

“Knowing this, in 2025 the engineering division began critically the remaining service life of unpaved roadways,” he said.

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“While some roads were found to be in really good condition, others were found to have a variety of deficiencies including drainage issues, structure issues, alignment issues or profile issues.”

Many of the issues are caused by years of grading, which ends up removing some of the surface of the road. If it gets to the point that water sits on top and does not run down, then bigger problems arise.

If the structure of the road deteriorates, then it needs to be added to the capital projects list.

“You can do as much grading and gravelling as you want in this location, but the structure of the road is still failing, and the water is still sitting on the side of the road,” said Evans of one example he shared.

A funding challenge then kicks in because the roadway special tax can only be used to rehabilitate roads. It can’t be used for capital upgrades.

If the residents in the area want to upgrade the road, they can choose to do so through a local improvement levy.

Another report will be coming out early this year for their 2026 road rehabilitation plan, according to Hastings.

He said that Nordale’s roads have been assessed but could not guarantee they would be part of this year’s plan.

Should the residents want their roads upgraded, at least 51 per cent of the owners that own 51 per cent of the frontage must agree to pay for the cost of the upgrade. This is how the existing pavement was paid for elsewhere.

“We have dozens of kilometres of roads that are unpaved so it’s not possible for the city to use existing funding just to upgrade them all,” Hastings said.

Coun. Troy Parenteau said he met with residents at a recent meeting and looked for some clarification on what the options are for Nordale’s roads.

“I think that the option that is highlighted is the millings category, that this now gives the ability for the rehab program to bring the road up to the conditions we may have seen in the past?” he asked.

That means while the roads won’t be upgraded to pavement, they would be brought back to the point they were in the past which is better than what they are now.

Hastings said that yes, they can take road tax money to use millings to re-do the surface of the road to its previous condition.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com