Edmonds roadwork to be done by November
The seemingly endless construction on Edmonds Street is now just months away from completion, after which the road should be good for decades, says Burnaby's director of engineering.
The roadwork will be completed by November, said Lambert Chu.
"We just want to be very mindful of the event coming up on Edmonds so we're not digging up the road," he said.
That event would be the Edmonds City Fair and Classic Car Show, taking place on Sunday, July 22, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Edmonds between Kingsway and Canada Way.
The contractors will be sweeping the street to accommodate the event, for which the street will be closed.
All the work is also being coordinated with the construction of the new Edmonds Community Centre.
At the moment, the road is a rough, bumpy mess, and has been the subject of numerous complaints to Coun. Paul McDonell and other city officials. Portions of the sidewalks are also broken up, awaiting new concrete and curbs.
It's just the latest construction activity on Edmonds which all started last year.
A few years ago the city engineering department identified the street as being due for repaving in its capital plan. As it always does, staff then looked at all the utilities underneath, such as water, sewer, storm sewer,
"They were not in the best condition and would need to be replaced within the next five years," or even earlier if there were a leak that needed repairing, Chu explained.
Not wanting to break up new pavement to replace all that, the utilities were all replaced first last year, which added to the roughness of the road.
"It's good planning ... We do that for all our road paving program. It's our standard practice."
Chu noted that as part of the process, the city also contacts the owners of hydro and telephone ducts to see if they plan to upgrade as well, so it can all happen together. Some overhead hydro lines on the north side of Edmonds between Humphries and Fulton avenues have been moved underground as part of the community centre's construction, something that's typically done with larger developments.
The concrete sidewalk work will likely be done first, then the roadwork, although the contractor could adjust the timing to meet their scheduling, Chu said. The curbs and base paving should be done in September and October, with final work, including line painting and cleanup happening in November.
Summer is the best time for the roadwork, he said. "Paving in the winter is very challenging and at the end of the day will not give us a good product. This is the ideal time for paving work, right temperature and also it cures at a faster rate. You could almost put traffic on it 12 hours after the blacktop is put down."
For those tired of the road construction, there is a silver lining—once it's done, it'll be decades before it'll have to be done again.
According to Chu, the utilities have a service life of about 50 years, while the road likely won't need resurfacing again for another 20 years.
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
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