Ruts and rough roads: What the leaders would do to fix it

When it comes to ruts on the roads, it's difficult to find a patch of highway that doesn't have them.

The CBC's St. John's Morning Showput the call out to listeners, asking what they thought the provincial election candidates should be talking about. Overwhelmingly, listeners stated their biggest concern was the state of the province's roads.

• Newfoundland and Labrador Votes: CBC's full coverage

The showthenasked all three political party leaders what they would do to address the state of roads and highways across the province.

NDP Leader Earle McCurdy said he doesn't have the skillset to address the specifics of the issue, and would defer to those who did.

Anyone who thinks we have heavy traffic should go up on the 401 and take a spin.- Earle McCurdy

"I've got no magic formula for how to mix asphalt or how to deal with ruts on the road. What we would do is deal with people who do know, and presumably in the department of Transportation you would have that," McCurdy said.

However, McCurdy said he doesn't "buy" the argument that high traffic is the major factor causing ruts in the road.

"Anyone who thinks we have heavy traffic should go up on the 401 and take a spin."

McCurdy added the NDP would seek to consult with municipalities about how to best figure out a multi-year plan for road work.

"I think it's part of treating municipalities and people generally with some kind of respect and saying here's where you stand on a priority list and develop a plan for doing it over several years, not some kind of political lottery and see whose MHA can squawk the loudest in any given year," said McCurdy.

"It should be an orderly and organized way of putting priority on which roads get done, and as for the ruts it would take expertise that I don't personally have and I won't pretend to have it to find out how to get to the bottom of that."

Apply new technologies

Progressive Conservative Leader Paul Davis said the best way to figure out how to best address road ruts and repairs is by looking in to new technologies.

"I believe in applying new technologies and we know it's difficult to use hot asphalt in the wintertime, but there may be more effective and efficient pieces of equipment now that we can move hot asphalt for longer periods of time," said Davis.

"Hot asphalt holds in potholes better than then cold patch that they use throughout the winter. The cold patch essentially just disintegrates, you fill it and you can't fix it until the spring, but using hot asphalt and new equipment that's available for hot asphalt will help do that."

Davis added a can decked out with some of the latest equipment allows government to assess the state of the roads, as well as determine who traffic congestion in any given area could effect the state of the roads.

'Take the politics out of pavement'

Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Dwight Ball said it's become clear during cross-province campaigning that quality of roads is an issue everywhere.

"No. 1, we've got to get assessment, especially through the engineering, of the conditions of the road," said Ball.

"Then secondly to get better value for money what we would do, put in place is multi-year tendering so that companies would know in advance, the employees of those companies would know in advance, then the people that are travelling those roads in advance would know years ahead."

Ball added it would be done on a priority basis, and it was "time to take the politics out of pavement."

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