Troy Shantz
Sarnia’s Danielle Pretty was driving on Evergreen Drive on March 6 when her vehicle hit a patch of broken pavement, badly damaging its front end.
“It was quite alarming when my tire fell off my car after hitting the pothole (and) coming to a screeching halt,” she said.
The ball joint of her Lincoln SUV had broken off and the lower control arm was lying on the asphalt.
“Differential fluid was spewing from my car all over the road,” she said.
The sorry state of many of Sarnia’s roads is no secret to local drivers. As The Journal reported last year, 150 kilometres of street have reached or surpassed the end of their useful life.
The difference between the actual need and what’s spent on roads — known as the infrastructure deficit — has ballooned under successive city councils to $27 million.
But this year’s road resurfacing budget is $3 million, said engineer David Jackson. That’s about $750,000 more than last year, and three-times what was spent annually under the previous council.
More than 50% of the money is going to non-major roads and residential streets, Jackson said.
“Over the past few years there was a big focus on fixing many of the roads in the more rural area.
“Most of that work is completed, so we are going to be focusing on local and secondary roads in the main urban area this year.”
On Monday, city council approved a list of roads recommended for resurfacing this year. It includes Afton Drive, Baxter Avenue, Amesbury Court, Westbury Court, and parts of Cromwell Street, Elrick Crescent, Gladwish Drive, and Canatara Park.
Every two years the city assesses all its streets, giving them a grade of 1 to 100 based on potholes, cracks and drivability, he explained.
Feedback from the public is also used when selecting roads for repair, he added.
Such was the case of Echo Road, which runs north of Michigan Avenue and west of Northern Collegiate. It magically appeared on a list of paving projects last year and became the first residential street in at least six years to be added to the regular resurfacing schedule.
Echo Road residents had presented a petition to council in 2015 stating their street was a “disgrace” and hadn’t been resurfaced in at least 30 years.
Some other roads will get spot patches from public works, Jackson said, an initiative that was expanded this year.
Pretty’s pothole misadventure occurred on Friday, March 6. Ironically, she said, a road patching crews showed up and filled it as she waited for a tow truck to haul off her damaged SUV.
She intended to file a claim with City Hall for the $600 repair bill, she added.
“I am an educated woman, I take care of my things, I pay my taxes, and I drive carefully,” she said.
“How the hell is this acceptable in our city?”