Yukon Government Announces New Road Maintenance Improvement Program for Territory

Wednesday, 10 April 2019 16:23

Portions of the Alaskan Highway between Watson Lake and Haines Junction will be the first to benefit from the program (photo courtesy of Yukon Sights)

The Yukon Government has announced a new Roadway Maintenance Improvement program in the territory that will classify and prioritize future road projects.

Director of Transportation Planning Richard Gorczyca says the new asset managing program will cost $5 million to roll out this year, and will cover everything from vegetation and line control, roadside obstructions and barriers.

Gorczyca say vegetation control will account for almost half of the budget for the program this year,with brushing and trimming costs set to decrease substantially along territorial highways in the years to come.

"As we move through the program, the vegetation control program will likely reduce in size as there will be operational efficiencies once we clear out the backlog of brushing work."

Among the priority initiatives, highways will be assigned six different classifications depending on the amount of traffic the road sees daily, ranging from a class six level of less than 20 visitors to a level one road which sees more than 3000 visitors.

In terms of line painting, the territory will see around 700 km of freshly painted road lines between Watson Lake and Haines Junction to start off the program.

Gorcyzka says similar to the brushing project, the road line painting will follow a six-year cycle.

"Similar to the brushing program, we will apply that asset-management approach and conduct a cyclical line painting program that will work to paint all of over our primary highways over a six-year cycle."

Tenders for contracts in the program are set to be delivered in the coming months with the roadside improvement initiatives set to start later this year.

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