Busy season ahead for Charlottetown crews with road projects and Fiona debris collection

The manager of Charlottetown's public works department is bracing for a busy season, with road projects coming along at the same time workers are about to resume picking up residential debris left over from post-tropical storm Fiona

The city announced this week that crews will continue collecting Fiona debris because there are still large pieces remaining from when the program was paused for the winter, said public works manager Scott Adams.

Residents are being asked to cut large pieces of tree debris, such as trunks or branches, into pieces that are no more than 1.2 metres in length to make sure they're safe to handle.

People can then pile them up by the roadside, making sure they are not blocking traffic.

"We're asking everyone to have this out as soon as possible," Adams said.

Pickup of that debris will continue until the end of June.

Park Street and Passmore Street

Some of the major road projects this season include the connection road linking Park Street to the adjacent Beach Street, as well as the reconstruction of Passmore Street once city council gives it the green light, Adams said.

Also, 29 street segments are slated to be resurfaced this summer, adding up to nine kilometres of work, because $3.5 million has been set aside for this year's program.

In order to determine which streets get addressed first, Adams' department has inspected every street in the city. Staff are looking for large potholes, cracking, and raveling, a process where gravel or rocks emerge from disintegrating asphalt.

Then, Adams said, the department ranks streets in terms of the severity of damage and the density of traffic.

"We just go down that list, taking the worst street and going down as far on that list as we can… until we get to our budgeted amount."

More streets will be resurfaced this year because the budget has jumped from last year's $1 million, Adams said.