A consultant that looked at the condition of a paved county road west of Didsbury has recommended that the roadway be completely rebuilt, at a cost of more than $9 million.
The report and findings of the Road West Engineering Ltd. survey of Rge. Rd. 40 were presented to Mountain View County's policies and priorities committee at its regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 2.
John Ryman, project director with Roads West, presented the report and spoke with committee members. He said an average of 290 vehicles use the roadway every day, with eight per cent of those vehicles being industrial trucks.
The 12.4-kilometre section of the road that was examined lies between Highway 582 and Highway 27 east of Harmattan.
The road is eight metres wide and does not meet any of the county's current road standards, he said.
“The ride quality is generally poor, especially in the southern half of the roadway where frequent and extensive patching and pothole repairs are found in both the northbound and southbound lane,” the report states.
“Wheel path rutting exists throughout the project severe enough for water ponding on the road surface. There are many failure areas on the roadway's surface with extreme severity alligator cracking.”
Test of the roadway showed that its asphalt thickness ranges from 273 millimetres to only 16 millimetres, he said.
“The variance in structural thickness is likely due to the extensive patching and pothole repairs that have been required throughout the years,” the report states. “Test result showed a very weak subgrade for the entire roadway section.”
In all, four design options were considered for upgrade of the road: asphalt concrete pavement; full depth reclamation with an asphalt concrete pavement overlay, at a cost of $6.2 million; grade widening and asphalt concrete pavement overlay, at a cost of $7.1 million; and full reconstruction, at a cost of $9 million.
In the end the consultant recommended the full reconstruction option.
“Testing of the roadway has shown the subgrade is very weak with up to 25 per cent requiring reconstruction,” the report states. “The existing road shows signs of extensive surface distress and the existing pavement structure varies greatly in thickness due to extensive patching and pothole repairs that has been required. It is recommended that option 4 be completed.”
Reyman told the committee: “In our opinion the best bang for the buck is a full reconstruction.”
Coun. Paddy Munro said the municipality needs to ensure that industry pays for damage its trucks do to county roads, “or else we will go broke paying for it.”
The policies and priorities committee, which is made up of all sitting county councillors, received the report for information.
