Councillor Cunningham seeks report on city's pavement marking program

The case of the disappearing road lines was once again part of the
discussion at Prince Rupert City Council

The topic of the city's fading road markings made a return to Prince Rupert City Council on Monday, as Barry Cunningham picked up the theme from Councillor Wade Niesh, with Mr. Cunningham seeking some answers on the nature of the contract work of last year.

As we outlined on the blog earlier this month, Councillor Niesh had noted for Council that the markings through the downtown core were in poor shape, with many cross walk marking now faded far from view.

Monday Councillor Cunningham made further inquiries of City Manager Robert Long as to whether the City could provide a report on the work and whether the City had received full value for their payment to the contractors.

"Last council meeting Councillor Niesh brought up a thing about the line painting. how it's disappearing. After he made that comment I drove around town and it looks like they've used chalk dust on some of the lines, they're just not there and they were painted last summer.  And yet,  years ago you would walk across the cross walk and the paint would be built up, and this here is just gone and it's not even a year. I know that Councillor Niesh asked what kind of paint was used,  and that, whatever type of paint was used if we have got to get a contractor to come back every year to paint those lines, there's something wrong with that picture"  -- Councillor Barry Cunningham on the nature of the city's disappearing road markings

The Mayor observed that it was his understanding that it was standing procedure that the city has to have the lines painted every year and that the lines disappear every year, asking for some guidance from the City Manager on the issue.

Mr. Long offered up some possible reasons for the disappearing paint, ranging from new pavement, as well as to the extensive use of gravel this year, with Long offering to have staff provide a report for Council on the issue for further review as to what the contractor did and did not do.

Mr. Cunningham also noted that the work had at one time been done in house by city employees, though the City Manager was quick to observe that when that was the case, the work load would sometimes fall behind meaning that the painting work never got done.

Mr. Long also offered up some possible reasons for the disappearing paint, ranging from the extensive use of gravel this year, weather an

You can review the discussion from the City's Video Archive starting at the 1 hour twenty three minute mark.





For more items related to the city's infrastructure see our archive page here.

A wider overview of Monday evening's City Council session is available through our Council Timeline feature.

Further notes on Council discussion topics can be found on our Council Discussion page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review