It’s not a title cities aspire to get, but Regina is making quite a case for itself during CAA Saskatchewan‘s ‘Worst Roads’ campaign – specifically in the Whitmore Park neighbourhood.
Twenty-six Saskatchewan roads round out CAA’s top ten. Regina streets make up 14, seven of which are in Whitmore Park.
James Gerein lives on Dolphin Bay; the street currently tied for sixth place. He’s not surprised by CAA’s list.
“It’s insane. It’s a third world street,” James Gerein said. “I have friends in the north that call this area sinking south.”
Gerein’s house is on the north end of Dolphin Bay. He says he does everything he can to avoid driving the full length of the street.
“Even though sometimes it would be more intuitive to go south, we never ever do,” Gerein said. “It just increases the torture. It’s like driving over a stone pile.”
Get daily National news
Gerein says residents have learned to slow down when driving in the area. He says the pot holes, broken pavement and ruts are hard on vehicles and even worse for cyclists.
“It’s pure hell. You really just tootle around, avoiding all the holes. It’s very circuitous and serpentine,” he said.
Norman Kyle, City of Regina director of roadways and transportation, says residential roads are one of the city’s biggest concerns and streets in Wards One, Two and Six have always been “poor” because of their age. Whitmore Park falls under Ward One.
Kyle says the city doesn’t put much merit on CAA’s campaign. However, Kyle says he suspects some of the roads on the list “are due for a treatment either this year or next year.”
The city collects its own data to determine which roads are worse for wear.
“We do annual evaluations on the road network that takes into account not only the condition of the road, but the sidewalk, the amount of ponding, cracking, length and width of cracks and ride performance,” Kyle said.
The 2019 budget allocated $14 million to fix 24.8 kilometres of residential roads through 84 projects. Kyle says the city is still finalizing its road construction schedule for the summer, but it should be released in the coming weeks.
The ‘Worst Roads’ campaign runs until May 8, with the final results being released May 9.
Comments