New treatment for 1100 block of 95th St
FTLComm - Tisdale - Tuesday, June 15, 2010
It is no secret that Tisdale has gotten considerably behind in keeping up its streets. It missed several years of doing any resurfacing at all but kept on digging streets up and expanding the community. Then last fall the paving crew was in the midst of preparing several streets for paving and the weather put an end to last seasons paving.
The paving crew is suppose to come back early this summer and finish the streets that they left last year but in the mean time there are so many other parts of town that are in such a sorry state. Patches are being patched and new construction and repair of old water mains produces more damage than is repaired each season.
Today the town looks like it is trying something different. The eleven-hundred block of 95th Street was dug up as new construction runs the complete east side of the street so that about one third of the block was damaged with the installation of new water and sewer services for the new buildings. But, about two thirds of the street does have its original, though aging pavement.
Using what is basically a pavement rototiller mounted on the front of the front end loader (below) the town has dug up most of the block, paved and unpaved areas. Through the day they processed the street with the digging device then using the little used town grader and a packer they worked the street so that its surface is consistent.
The plan is to use an alternative to asphalt pavement and apply a thin coat oil treatment. This was a commonly used highway surface at one time in Saskatchewan and has been used in some towns. It is considerably less expensive than real pavement but has a very modest life at best. It does provide a dust free surface but is a poor excuse for hard surfacing in a busy street like 95th which each morning and afternoon sees all of Tisdale's fleet of buses make their daily run to the Elementary School.
By the end of the working day the street had been turned into a consistent mixture of old pavement and gravel and was packed and smoothed out ready for a surface treatment. Weather permitting that should occur on Wednesday and Thursday. Next week we will see how it looks.
