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Spring maintenance underway in Meadow Lake

Mar 21, 2018 | 5:00 PM

The spring melt is leading to upgrades of Meadow Lake’s infrastructure.

City crews have been busy clearing last bits of snow on the road, steaming and thawing culvert and storm drains, and working on filling some problem surface failures on the streets.

City manager Diana Burton said the department of public works received calls for frozen water and sewer lines this year.

“As the ground thaws the frost gets pushed down a bit,” she said. “Residents are asked to run water through their taps to prevent the lines from freezing, and we also have a page on our website with tips for preventing freezing.”

She said citizens of Meadow Lake are encouraged to report any areas of standing water or potholes to the city, either by phone or using the city’s mobile app. 

“We encourage people to report areas of concern, because maintenance is being done as it’s noticed or on an as reported basis,” Burton said. “If there’s still water in the hole and it’s pretty major, crews can go and suck the water out to dry it out. They then wait to put any material in until it’s a little more dry.”

Last fall, the city’s engineering department completed a ranking system of the roads, including traffic flow, as well as an assessment the underground utilities, which helped make the plan for the capital paving upgrades this year. With the city’s two-year-long valve replacement program complete, Burton said crews will now be able to do more focused road improvements.

“We are putting quite a bit of capital into roads, when you think about it all coming together, it’s over $1 million,” Burton said. “And that’s just pavement improvements. So we want to make sure we do the right places, which get used the most and are in the roughest shape. We’re always trying to make more educated decisions.”

 

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath