Prince Edward County’s Committee of the Whole says that local roads have been neglected for too long.
During Thursday’s meeting, the committee received info from municipal staff about the current condition of the local roads.
The presentation painted a dire picture. Streetscan, a company that inspects roads with high tech sensing equipment found that close to 40% of roads in Prince Edward County are in poor condition or worse, and without increased maintenance roads would continue to deteriorate so that in five years more than half would be rated in poor condition and in 10 years over a quarter of all roads would need to be completely replaced.
The study found that in order to maintain the existing road network properly, it would take a budget of almost $25.5 million.
The current road maintenance budget is seven million.
Committee of the whole looked at multiple proposals for action on maintaining the road system, and opted to increase the budget to the target level over five years.
Councillor Phil St-Jean said that previously, underfunding road maintenance has caused problems that need to be addressed.
“We’re in a bad spot, I think we’ve always known that. I think we’re on a path forward that I think is the right thing to do. It’s gonna be tough. People are not gonna be happy when they see their tax bills increase, but the reality is like Councillor Maynard said. We have chronically underfunded our road system for decades,” said Councillor St-Jean.
Committee of the Whole passed the measure to increase road maintenance funding from $7 million to $25.4 million over five years, which will be referred to Prince Edward County Council for final approval.
