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Mayor says low-cost road surface is best Gibsons can afford

Infrastructure

Gibsons Mayor Wayne Rowe is trying to smooth things over with residents unhappy with the Town’s solution to deteriorating roads.

Instead of repaving, the Town’s engineering department used chipseal on several secondary roads. Chipseal is layers of tar, or bitumen, combined with fine gravel.

More than a dozen people turned up at the Oct. 18 Gibsons council meeting in support of a petition signed by 27 residents of Martin, North Fletcher and Corlett roads.

The petition complains that the chipseal road surfacing on those roads poses safety and environmental hazards, and could cause vehicle damage.

None of the petitioners spoke at the meeting, but Rowe tried to address their concerns.

He also told them Gibsons is facing extraordinary pressures when it comes to maintaining infrastructure. He said a recent assessment of the 32 kilometres of Town-owned road found one-third were in poor or very poor condition, and that it would require $550,000 a year just to keep them from getting any worse. 

“Quite simply, the choice that your council had to make is either we abandon road maintenance altogether or we find alternative solutions,” Rowe told the petitioners. “We are not a rich town. We can’t afford to pave all our roads to the standard we would like, so choices have to be made between the service level that we’re able to provide in this town or taxation that, quite frankly, is just simply unsupportable.”

Even though chipseal is considered a low-cost option, the Town still couldn’t pay for the recent work with cash-in-hand. It had to borrow $244,000 as well as $148,000 to cover other roadwork through a special bylaw earlier this year.

Rowe said he and the rest of council understand the residents’ concerns, but he also pointed out that although chipseal roads are rough to start, they will smooth out over time, and he asked for patience.