Paving schedule proving elusive for City and the Sixth Avenue Bridge completion

Asphalt and the ability to access it would appear to be the stumbling block to putting a wrap on the Sixth Avenue Bridge project.

Last month the city re-opened the crossing to traffic, though with a bit of a rustic look akin to the early days of Prince Rupert transportation, with a washboard like effect providing the base of
transportation between the east side and the rest of the city.

Pr Rupert roads 1910,
photo courtesy PR Archive website

To go with the rudimentary base for travel across Hays Creek, a 30 km speed limit, has been put in place the hopeful difference between a rattling of undercarriages of vehicles and wear and tear on the shocks.

Still, the preference for all would be a nice shiny layer of pavement to bring the job to an end and towards that goal, as we outlined on our City Council Timeline of yesterday, Council members discussed the topic at their Tuesday Council session.

Councillor Cunningham broached the topic of a completion date and for an answer was advised that the City Manager had made repeated efforts to spur along the process with the contractor Adventure Paving.

Councillor Garon passed along what probably is the most relevant observation on the delay, that of the remediation work taking place on the runway and apron approaches of the Digby Island Airport, with the asphalt plant having been required for that job across the harbour.

A situation that would appear to have impacted on the timeline of the Sixth Avenue East bridge paving process.

Council members and more importantly local motorists will no doubt be hoping that the paving project gets moving sooner rather than later, with the fall weather patterns about to change as they do, the number of days to provide for good paving weather may soon be in low numbers.

You can review the short discussion on asphalt and timelines from the City Video Archive, it can be found around the 52 minute mark.

For more items of interest from City Council see our archive page.