If the City of Windsor were to fix all its deficient roads today, it would cost around $390-million.
City engineer Mark Winterton says obviously, the city doesn't have that kind of money up front, but it will discuss a strategy to address bad roads at an upcoming strategic meeting. "They (council) would look at what their priorities are for the next period of council and I think they're even looking beyond 20 years, because that was part of the asset management plan."
About 20% of Windsor's roads need repair while in the county about 40% need work. County Engineer Tom Bateman says that's actually fairly typical and after the winter that past, it could be much worse. "I think what we saw was a very slow melt this year with not too too much moisture. So, it allowed a lot of that frost to come out of the ground without causing too much damage" he says. "We do have some roads that require almost daily attention, but we're actually fairly pleased."
Bateman isn't concerned about breaking the bank with road repairs this year. "We budget about $450,000 for small patching and I think we'll probably run that."
The county expects to issue tenders for road repairs in the next few weeks while the city has already hired contractors to do the work. Construction is expected to start in mid to late April when the asphalt plants open and hit its peak in July and August.
