Saskatoon to spend $350K to collect sidewalk repair data

The City of Saskatoon is spending $350,000 on a new sidewalk-rating system to better determine which sidewalks need to be fixed.

“This is the first time in the city’s history that we will have access to a snapshot of our entire sidewalk infrastructure via an objective, technology-based assessment system,” Rob Frank, manager of asset preservation for major projects, said in a media release.

Employees will walk the city’s sidewalks while collecting data on tablets according to the set out criteria. The information will be used to run analysis over the winter and make decisions for next year’s construction season.

The city’s funding for sidewalk repairs and preservation is $2.1 million this year. Funding is expected to increase to $2.7 million in 2016.

The city’s 1,932 kilometres of sidewalks and 2,280 kilometres of curbs are currently fixed on a priority bases.

The 2015 construction season plans on fixing 17.8 km with crack-filling, 6.3 km of curb replacements, 5.4 km of full sidewalk panel replacement, and 1.7 km of trip ledge repairs.

The budget to collect the baseline data is $350,000.