WEYBURN – Drivers in the city of Weyburn are being asked to be patient, as some of the rough roads around the city will be taken care of this year as the city is able, with First Avenue to be redone for several blocks.
City engineer Jennifer Wilkinson told council the new paving machine the city has brought in is being used, but it will take time to get to all the potholes and rough sections of road.
Last week a section at the corner of Sims Avenue and the access off Highway 39 by the Walmart store was cut out and the new machine was used to fill in the area with hot asphalt mix. An infrared heater was used to melt the edges to help make it smoother.
Wilkinson said they have done repairs in a few other places, such as Highway 35 north, Douglas Road and 13th Street.
There are many spots along First Avenue where this machine could work, but she pointed out since they are doing a complete rebuild of a large section of that road, it would be a waste of time and energy to do fixes on there now.
The same goes for Railway Avenue, she added, as there will be a watermain replaced and then the area will be repaved afterward from about Fifth to Ninth Streets.
The next area to be worked on is at the corner of Government Road and Souris Avenue, which has already been blocked off to enable the work to be done there.
“We are running some night crews and will be doing that this coming week on higher traffic roads,” said Wilkinson. “We are running Monday to Friday on full-hour shifts … We are out there, we have been working hard.”
As for the First Avenue project, she said they want to have all of the related contractors lined up ready to go to do the whole project, and it will be done in stages, so as not to cut off access to businesses, residences and the hospital.
With the upcoming Oil Show, there will be some work done on the exhibition grounds before the outdoor exhibitors start to come in and fill up the grounds.
Coun. Jeff Richards said this process used with the infrared machine is much more sensible than just shoveling in cold mix into a pothole that won’t last very long.
