By David F. Rooney
The City’s recent $430,000 road reconstruction project on a portion of King Street from Second Street to Douglas in Lowertown has neighbourhood residents wondering why other crumbling and broken road surfaces in the area aren’t being addressed.
“King Street has been paved three times but it just doesn’t last,” said Vittoria Van Leur, who has lived in the area for 14 years.
She and other neighbours said the roads are so bad in the blocks near Okanagan College that they try to avoid having to drive on portions of them for fear of damaging their vehicles. Indeed, some of the pot holes were — until they were recently patched — six or more inches deep. Frost heaves are also common and large stretches of pavement are badly broken.
Residents are at a loss, but the City does have a plan. The 67-page Capital Works Projects Plan identifies road reconstruction plans for the City, including those proposed for Lowertown, most of which will be completed in 2013.
None of this is cheap. Three reconstruction projects in Lowertown next year — on Second Street from Wright to King, First from Hanson to Benson and Benson from First to Douglas King from Second to Douglas — are estimated to cost more than $1.4 million.
Please click here to read the plan. In the meantime, here are some photos of road surfaces in Lowertown:
