SUMMER MAINTENANCE EXTENDS LIFE OF CITY INFRASTRUCTURE

A variety of summer maintenance and repair programs are carried out each year that are critical to protecting Saskatoon’s roadway infrastructure from deterioration.   The initial spring focus is high-traffic street sweeping to remove winter debris and pothole repairs to seal the road, followed by six weeks of city-wide curb-to-curb street sweeping.

“The work isn’t glamourous and sometimes it may go unnoticed by most residents, but it is critical to keeping a city this size moving,” says Pat Hyde, Director of Public Works. 

Other programs include 400 kilometres of back lane maintenance and rehabilitation to restore grades and remove ruts; more than 300 sidewalk repairs to prevent risk of tripping; and washing/sealing concrete bridges and overpasses to reduce damage from the weather. 

“These programs are essential to extending the life of the roads and infrastructure that we all rely on every day,” says Hyde.   “Thanks in most part to the dry weather we experienced through spring and summer we’ve finished the majority of programs within a day or two of our schedule.” 

In addition to these annual roadway programs, we continue to repair potholes and pave utility cut locations. To date crews have repaired approximately 140,300 potholes and patch 20-25 utility cut locations each day.

“Now that the summer programs are drawing to a close we are turning our attention towards preparing our programs for winter.”

Slow down, pay attention and respect work zones. Watch for pedestrians and work crews, and for everyone’s safety, please obey all detours, signs and barriers.

Know before you go! Plan your route around road work by checking our Road Restrictions and Construction Projects interactive map.  Find traffic detour information on our saskatoon.ca homepage or subscribe to our Traffic Detour Service Alerts. You can also follow us on Twitter @cityofsaskatoon and with #betterroadsYXE and like Saskatoon City News on Facebook.