District of Clearwater will hold a special town council meeting on Tuesday, July 29, to discuss repaving of Candle Creek and Barber roads.
The meeting will take place at the new district hall, which is located in the former Dutch Lake School. It will start at 10 a.m.
Staff is recommending that the District spend up to $90,000 to complete hot mix asphalt overlay repairs to the two roads.
The work would be done by Borrow Enterprises as part of its road maintenance agreement. A report from staff noted that Candle Creek Road had been repaved several years ago, using recycled millings from a repaving project on Highway 5.
Unfortunately, there was no base placed under the overlay and the road is deteriorating to the point there is a safety concern.
Both Candle Creek and Barber road are heavily used, particularly with the existing cross-country ski trails and mountain bike trails being developed in the area.
Options looked at included pulverizing the road back to gravel, and a complete asphalt overlay of critical sections of the road.
Various authorities were consulted and it was pointed out that turning the road back to gravel would be costly to do and to maintain.
Considering the volume of traffic, the road would need to be graded every three or four weeks (except in winter), plus be treated with calcium two to four times per year. A simple overlay option was felt to offer the best bang for the buck.
The overlay would be a three to five year fix, so the District would need to continue adding overlay each year until a stronger road results. It was pointed out that the drainage problems that are causing the road weakness also need to be addressed.
Last November town council authorized spending up to $200,000 from the road capital reserves as part of the community overlay program by the highways department that was recently completed.
About $95,000 of those funds still remain and could be used for the proposed project.