This is page numbers 6559 – 6620 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was know.

Topics

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I actually took that highway four days ago and I found it challenging to drive faster than 65 over the whole highway. I am just trying to understand how we look at this highway from the context of what are the sections that require rehabilitation that are defined as dips and what are the sections that are defined as maintenance. That whole highway has deteriorated horribly. I have taken it several times this summer and I will tell you it has really deteriorated quite a bit since last fall. I would distinguish, I mean the whole thing needs to be resurfaced. So, why don’t we start with those first questions? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Deputy Minister Neudorf.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Neudorf

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The stretch of highway between Behchoko and Yellowknife has some deterioration in the surface and dips. We are addressing it two ways. First we have our O and M money. With that we basically just fill the dip and put a new chip fill surface on top and it doesn’t get any farther than the surface, it is just repairing the surface. When we do have some additional money with the capital funding here, we do take the opportunity to essentially reconstruct the highway. So we start with the drainage, make sure that that is okay, then we make sure that the side structure is okay. We bring it up to grade and then we put a finishing surface on it and chipseal it.

To try to address and come up with better solutions, we do have a number of different test sections out there right now where we are testing different things to see if we can come up with a better way to slow down the rate that the dips are appearing on that road. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, deputy minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will return to the test sections, because I would like to know more about that, but I want to understand in this particular section on Highway No. 3 how many kilometres are targeted for reconstruction and how many are targeted, I assume, just to fill in the dips. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Beaulieu.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The embankment

improvements

in

the

recent

construction, we are hoping to do four to five kilometres each year, and with the maintenance we try to maintain the full 100 kilometres. So we would put down some material to fix the dips and holes with

maintenance and try to maintain the best driving conditions as possible. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Is he really saying under the dips we are just filling holes and fixing cracks? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The regular maintenance program, with the capital that we are discussing today, we will be reconstructing sections that we are hoping won’t deteriorate any further. With the areas where we are not reconstructing, we continue to maintain it and if there are some dips that need to be filled, if there are holes that need to be filled, then we will be patching the holes and filling the dips with some material that will keep the road as smooth as possible.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Since the construction of that road a few years ago, when we received all that money to redo it, I am just wondering if there was any part of that actual road that was under warranty, and if so, what sections. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The entire highway would have been under warranty for one year, so as we pay the contractor for reconstructing the highway, it would have been a holdback for a year and then if the highway held for a year, we couldn’t legally hold a contractor’s money any longer than the year’s warranty. So once that money was released, essentially it was up to us to maintain any issues on the highway after that.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Was any warranty action taken? If so, how many kilometres fell under the warranty program?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I apologize, Mr. Chairman; I didn’t hear the question.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

It was such a good question I’m

surprised they weren’t hanging on my every word. I was asking, under the warranty program how many kilometres where actually actioned. In other words, did we actually use the warranty or were we able to access the warranty? Did we access any warranty whatsoever? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The construction of the highway was finished in 2006 and we don’t have the information if any warranty money was used the following year with us here. It may have been, but we can provide that information to committee if the Members wish.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

September 30th, 2015

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I

’d like to know if we actually got

any warranty out of it, and I certainly hope that would be here before the end of session. As you know, we’re down to just a few days.

Under the test section, I know we did a section using the product called Easy Street. Is the Minister able to tell us where they used this, how many kilometres or how long of a stretch they used, and why don’t we have a placard of some sort to identify that so people can see where it’s being used? I mean, I wouldn’t know where to look for it, so no one in the public

would, so how would we know what’s being used and how much? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Deputy Minister Neudorf.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Neudorf

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The purchase of Easy Street is they won a contract to provide material to fill potholes. That was several years ago and we used the material that we purchased underneath that contract to fill potholes. We did a test section at the junction of the Detah access road on Highway No. 4.

The test sections on Highway No. 3 are not about the chipsealed surface, so there’s no testing of Easy Street. The test sections on Highway No. 3 were about getting into the subgrade and how do we stabilize the subgrade to keep the ditch from reoccurring. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Has that test been successful and when do we call it an end of the test? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Neudorf

We do continue to monitor the test sections on Highway No. 3. We’ll see some results already. It’s about two years that they’ve been in operation no

w, but we’ll continue to monitor for five

or 10 years from now to get the full results. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

So the deputy minister is saying we’re going to have to wait five to 10 years before the GNWT decides to consider purchasing that?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Neudorf

Some of the dips that are on the highway reappear after a year. It does not take very long. When we did these test sections, we did pick particularly troublesome spots. Even though it’s two years, we are starting to see some of the results, but we will continue to monitor for five or 10 years to get the full results.

I would note that none of those test sections involved Easy Street. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

If we had more time I wouldn’t mind

knowing a little more about what are they doing and when do they actually start realizing it’s a product worth using or not using. I’m just curious. I mean, they’ve been saying they’ve been testing it for a number of years. This is the first time I’ve heard it’s two years. I thought it’s been out there for four or longer than four.

The deputy minister also talked about other design tests. Can he explain and elaborate? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Neudorf

To be clear, the test sections that we’re talking about on Highway No. 3, none of them involved Easy Street. So we were not testing surface products; we were testing subgrade repairs. There was no Easy Street on Highway No. 3.

There are four different test sections. Two of them involve culvert repairs and then two of them involve grade repairs. One of the grade repairs involved a product called Sementrics. It was basically a

concrete-type product that you use to provide some structural strength to the road, then you construct the road on top of that.

The other one involved different types of drainage of the grade, of the subgrade of the road, and different types of grade in terms of the size of the rock and then in terms of the angle of the ditching that’s on the side of the road. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, deputy minister. Committee, we’re on page 84, highways, infrastructure investments, $69.340 million.