“It’s time to start cleaning ourselves up and looking better”: Mayor Herb Pond

Working on the highway laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway all day long I don't stop
Working on the highway blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway, working on the highway
Bruce Springsteen, Working on the highway

They’ll be singing the chorus of the Bruce Springsteen song over at the city works yard soon, as the city makes plans to spend 2.2 million dollars to pave local roads, expand the dump and refurbish the Hays Creek Bridge.

The first of the projects will be the rebuilding of Fulton Street from Sixth down to third which was destroyed during the winter by a broken water main and the washing out of the road bed underneath. It’s expected to cost close to 500,000 dollars by the time it’s reopened to traffic.

After that they’ll get to work on some of the troublesome spots around town that are crying out for a sheet or two of asphalt.

The Daily News featured the story as the front page item in Wednesday’s Daily News.

CITY IS TO TARGET POTHOLES, BRIDGES ON ROAD AHEAD
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, May 02, 2007

City council is looking forward to seeing more than $2.2 million in capital works get underway this year — including street upgrading, expanding the landfill and work on the Hays Creek Bridge.

On Monday night, council passed the city’s budget and will be seeking an additional $360,000 in revenue from the taxpayers on an $11-million budget.

“What council was committing to was making some improvements in the community ... it’s time to start cleaning ourselves up and looking better,” said Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond.

“We hope that we can do the work and not be interrupted by another Fulton Street (emergency) but if we are, we have to keep going on these other things.”

City councillors agreed maintaining the city’s quarter-of-a-billion in infrastructure will help prevent a financial crisis down the road.

Bob Thompson, director of engineering for the city of Prince Rupert, said the first item on the city’s list of projects is reassembling Fulton Street, a project worth a half a million dollars.

A broken water main this past winter destroyed the road surface and winter weather has kept crews from repairing the street until now.

Then they have to develop some extra space in the city’s landfill site because it is getting full.
“We have some major development work to do there. That’s about a half a million dollars. Those are two pretty significant projects that have to be done right away,” said Thompson.

In addition, included in this year’s capital works budget is paying the school district for having Charles Hays field fixed last year. The school district and the city are partners in maintaining the field.

“We are very grateful to them for carrying the ball on that until now. That’s about $110,000,” said Thompson.

In addition, the city is hoping to do some work upgrading Hays Creek bridge this year, similar to the work that was done last year on Second Avenue bridge.

“We did some major work on Cow Bay bridge last year on an emergency basis to start the year off, and once we get this work on Hays Creek bridge done, what I call our three heritage bridges will be in good shape,” said Thompson. And the city will spend a half a million dollars fixing its roadways.

“We are doing overlay paving. We pick what we think are the most productive ways to spend our money all over town and pretty well almost every neighborhood benefits. If it’s not your neighborhood, it’s at least a road you have to take to get home so that everyone benefits to some degree from the paving,” he said.

Other projects on the books this year include buying a new garbage truck. The city has been limping along with an old and unreliable vehicle for some time.

The city also hopes to finish the design work for the Hays Creek sewer line — this will allow the city to apply for grants for 2008 for a large sewer project. The hope is to go in, renew the sewer lines and move them out of the creek if possible.

“That’s an environmental liability we want to get off our plate. When they first built Prince Rupert, they built the sewer lines in the easiest place which was down the creek beds because it had the gradient there,” said Thompson. “It was good for them but that has left us with a legacy and it’s the last one we have to get rid of.”

They are also hoping this year to initiate a liquid waste management plan, set out a direction for the next 40 years and how deal with the sewage problem.

“We are looking ahead and we are really feeling quite positive,” said Thompson