HomeMy WebLinkAboutWD-49-87 TOWN OF NEWCASTLE
t REPORT
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METING:
THE GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE
DATE: JULY 20, 1987
REPORT #: 87 FILE #:
SUBJECT: PUBLIC WORKS STATUS AND UPDATE
RECOMMENDATIONS:
It is respectfully recommended:
That Report WD-49-87 be received for information.
REPORT:
The first half of 1987 has been a busy year for the Public Works
Department.
The development activity in the department is at an all time high
both with new development proposals being submitted and the existing
developments on the go.
The outside operations have been quite busy to date with spring and
early summer activities such as roadside grass cutting, dust control,
pulverizing and surface treatment, entrance culvert installations,
street sweeping, clean-up week, the tuning up of summer maintenance
roads, as well as construction on Mill Street in Newcastle Village,
Riley Road, Old Scugog and Concession Road 7, storm sewer works on
Queen Street east of Liberty, storm sewer on Temperance Street north
of Highway 2 to the Administration Centre.
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Report No. WD-49-87
To date, we have filled nineteen student positions in the outside operation;
one clerical student and one engineering student.
The rural road name signing is progressing well . An individual from the
Hampton Depot has been given the task of looking after the signing
requirements throughout the Town and is performing well . The traffic
signage is being upgraded in many areas in conjunction with the road name
signing program. This is being done for two reasons; one reason is that
the signing across the municipality is deficient and, secondly, a lot of
travel time etc. , can be charged to traffic signing which is subsidizable
instead of the street name signing which is not subsidizable. The rural road
name signing program is approximately seventy-five percent complete now and
is scheduled for completion by the end of the summer.
A test section of a new method of durable line markings was used in downtown
Bowmanville on the cross walks and stop bars. This new line is designed to
last for several years and thereby reduce the staff time required to reline
them once a year and eliminate the condition where the lines are badly faded
and waiting to be repainted.
The department has been involved this spring in expanding our ongoing
practise of using pulverized asphalt as a granular material . For several
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years now, we have been pulverizing asphalt on distorted road sections and
using it in place as granular. This process reduces the costly removal and
disposal of broken up asphalt and the importing of granular material .
Materials resulting from the grinding of asphalt on Liberty Street during
the Region's project of upgrading of Liberty Street a few years ago were
used as granular in the Bowmanville Works Yard.
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Report No. WD-49-87
This summer, arrangements have been made to utilize surplus pulverized
asphalt from the Highway 35/115 reconstruction project as granular on a
street in Kirby and to refurbish the haul roads.
As part of the Mill Street realignment construction, the old road section
was pulverized and used as granular on the new road section just west of its
original location.
The M.T.C. has agreed to include the Town of Newcastle in a test program
comparing the economics of surface treatment, road oil and calcium chloride
as methods of dust control . The Ministry has offered $10,000.00 as
supplementary funding for this program which was intended for Concession
Road 10 from Highway 35/115 to Mosport Road.
In conjunction with the surface treatment program, drains were installed on
a section of Pebblestone Road west of Trulls Road and Prestonvale Road south
of Bloor Street. This method of road improvement as a result of the
positive results being experienced with a similar construction method which
was carried out on Prestonvale Road south of Highway 2 a few years ago as an
experiment.
The grading of summer maintenance roads was carried out primarily during the
month of June although it is recognized that it is desirous to grade these
roads much earlier in the spring prior to planting operations on
agricultural properties served by some of these roads. This grading has
historically been given a lesser priority than grading requirements on
gravel roads being used regularly by passenger cars, preparation for road
oil applications and surface treatment. The contracting of this operation
is being considered for the spring of 1988 in order to complete this
operation earlier, however, quite often the roads are too wet and soft to
put the grader on to do the grading.
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Report No. WD-49-87
The application of road oil and the surface treatment operation were carried
out on schedule and were completed by the end of June.
Cleanup Week took place during the week of May 11th. The volume of refuse
and debris put out for collection this year was unusually high and resulted
in some areas having refuse left on the street over night and some brush and
heavy articles being collected the week of May 18th. Works crews worked
overtime each day and on Saturday morning and a one man packer was obtained
from the Town of Ajax in order to get the streets cleaned up as soon as
possible.
Spring cleanup of the streets was completed by late June. There was some
downtime experienced for repairs and some time when the street sweeper
operator was required on the cleanup week operation. It is expected that
the spring cleanup will be completed earlier next year with the new sweeper
being in operation and with no cleanup week to run next year.
Tenders were called for refuse collection and disposal in Bowmanville and in
the Courtice Urban Area. Browning Ferris Incorporated was awarded the
contract for Bowmanville at the July 13th Council Meeting with commencement
of the contract scheduled for August 1, 1987.
The question of whether or not to award the contract for refuse collection
and disposal for the Courtice Urban area has been put to the area residents
with a report to G.P.A.C. expected for September 8th.
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Report No. WD-49-87
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Storm sewer installation on Queen Street behind the A & P is completed
and the road reconstruction is scheduled for September.
Storm sewer work on Temperance Street to accommodate the new
Administration Building is under way.
If there are any specific requests regarding the timing of the
construction projects or maintenance activities, Councillors are
encouraged to contact the department at their convenience.
In addition, the following comments are provided in order to present
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some up-date regarding staffing arrangments.
Firstly, one of the new engineering technicians commenced work on
June 29th and the second position is expected to be filled by late
July.
As the two new technicians that were authorized at budget time get
on board, some improvement in the engineering section is forecast.
The turn around time required to process development will be
streamlined and improved; however, until the new staff is up and
running, some delays may persist.
The time required for processing new development applications has
increased as the volume of processing increases, however, generally
the system is working with a steady progress being achieved. As
the opportunities arise, the Town's consultant has been used to augment
existing staff in order to cope with the tasks at hand. As new staff
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come on stream, it is intended that the organization's structure
will be altered and adjusted slightly to increase the effectiveness
and to allow senior technical staff to reduce their involvement in
the bulk processing.
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Report No. WD-49-87
At the G.P.A.C. Meeting of June 1st, the Committee approved a report
recommending changes to the present sidewalk policy to allow new sidewalk
construction on school routes and associated with development without the
necessity of utilizing local improvements.
Tenders are being called for the 1987 Capital Sidewalk works with a closing
date of August 21st and with construction completion scheduled for mid
October.
Work is scheduled to begin on:
- the construction of the new sidewalk on Highway # 2 in Courtice, on Sunset
Boulevard in Newcastle Village and on Division Street in Bowmanville in
September;
- the Nash Road reconstruction project east of Varcoe Road and the curb work
and boulevard restoration on the west side of Varcoe Road north of Nash
Road is September;
- the Bradley Street reconstruction project in August;
- the King Street - Haydon reconstruction project in late July;
- the Baseline Road reconstruction project in August;
- the Jane/Flett storm sewer project in September;
- the storm sewer project on Queen Street to accommodate the apartment site
west of Temperance Street in September;
- the Golf Course Road project in August;
- the Mosport Road upgrading in October;
- the Farrow Road culvert replacement in September.
The Holt Road reconstruction project is on hold pending the completion of a
study regarding the effect in the winding down of the Darlington Nuclear
Station construction.
Work is substantially completed on the Mill Street realignment project and
the Old Scugog Road/Concession Road 7 Intersection improvements. The
placing of the hot mix asphalt on these two projects is scheduled for
September.
The Riley Road upgrading is completed.
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Report No. WD-49-87
Secondly and further to recent discussions regarding technical support
in the operations section, staff is continuing to review this situation
and will address possible courses of action.
Thirdly, the clerk typist from the general office has been spending
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one day a week during April and May in the Hampton Depot training
to take over, for our Accounting Clerk's maternity leave (twin boys
July 7/87) has spent one full week there in June and commenced the
maternity leave coverage on June 15th. The part-time clerk typist
has moved up to a temporary status and a new part timer has been
hired to cover during the maternity leave.
Respectfully submitted, Recommended for presentation
to the Committee,
Gordon J. Ough, P. Eng. , LawrerY'ce E. Kotseff,
Director of Public Works. Chief Administrative Officer.
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