Thunder Bay road maintenance standards go under the microscope

The City of Thunder Bay wants to know your thoughts on road maintenance.

Roads Manager Brad Adams said a survey is underway until the end of April to get people's feedback on various standards for maintenance, like snow plowing, street sweeping and the patching of potholes.

Most of the current regulations have been in place since 1989, and Adams said they're due for another look.

The survey will help the city gather "comments and feedback from the community to see if we're meeting their expectations, or if there [are] other areas that need to be enhanced, or decreased or are there [things] happening that we should be looking at," Adams said.

The guidelines generally state that arterial roads are maintained first, whether that be during winter storms, spring clean up or when fixing potholes.

Roads with bike lanes also get priority for sweeping, Adams said, adding that as far as winter maintenance goes, there has to be an accumulation of 5 cm of snow on main roads to initiate snow plowing, and 10 cm on residential streets.

Setting standards may help with damage claims

Having clear standards and meeting them, can help protect the city from liability claims, Adams said.

The Municipal Act mandates cities be aware of situations and address them, he added. Following those standards means the city can be found not liable in some situations when a claim is filed, such as when a car is damaged by a pothole.

The survey, which Adams said launched on April 1, is being done at a time when the spring melt is exposing those potholes on Thunder Bay's roads but Adams said the timing is purely coincidental.

So far about 200 responses have come in.

Adams added that the complete resurfacing and reconstruction of roads is not covered by this survey or through the roads maintenance program. Those projects are done through the city's capital spending, he said.