Woodlands County needs to spend more than $1M on ditches

WOODLANDS COUNTY - Woodlands County could face upwards of $1 million to upgrade roadside ditches over the next five years.

That is what infrastructure services director Jeff Zhang told councillors during their Oct. 23 meeting in Whitecourt.

He said that over the last two years, the county has been collecting information on the status of its ditches as part of a rural road study. The study's ditch information included depth, side slope, crown, and the width of the ditch and road bottoms.

Zhang said that while the data is incomplete, the study estimates that roughly 75 per cent of the municipality's roadside ditches do not meet the county's minimum depth requirement of one metre.

"For instance, in a kilometre of road, [the data] doesn't show us how many metres of ditch there are and what side of the road needs to be worked on. It gives us an average and is a good starting point for budgetary conversations," he said.

Zhang added that the reason for that is that many of the county's roads pre-date the standard.

Zhang noted that ditches are imperative for collecting drainage so that the road subgrade does not become saturated regardless of the type of road surface.

Over time, he noted that ditches naturally gain elevation due to vegetation or material being pushed down into the ditch.

"A road without adequate ditches will experience soft spots and washboarding," Zhang said.

Later in the meeting, councillors approved Zhang's report as information.

He said public works considers roughly 200 km of the county's 900 km of roads don't meet the standard a high priority, with depths ranging from non-existent or flat to half a metre.

He said the plan is to complete the work in the next five years, with about 40 km completed.

Zhang estimated the cost of reconditioning the ditches to be about $5,000 a kilometre or about $200,000.

However, he believes that the estimate is on the high side, and if the municipality pairs the project with other work, such as culvert work or shoulder pulls, the amount should be lower. He added that the administration is still working on the tentative 2025 budgets for other public works subprograms.

Zhang noted that the municipality earmarked significantly less in previous budgets. According to the agenda package presentation in 2022, the county put aside $143,454 in 2022 and $62,593 and $58,491 in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Blue Ridge Coun. Bruce Prestidge noted the project might be more difficult than expected that many of the older roads would also need to be built up to the new standard of 30 metres compared to the old standard of 20 metres, which could leave little room for a proper ditch.

"If you just build a straight V-ditch and not a flat-bottom ditch, it will be overgrown in no time."

Whitecourt East Coun. Jeremy Wilhelm asked if the municipality had the equipment to do the work.

Zhang replied no, saying the county would need a small dozer would be required.

"A grader can work the side slope but can't get into the ditch," he said. "But a small dozer can be used for our other programs, like brushing. If the work is done at the same time or location, it is the same expense."

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com