Iqaluit to pave bone-jarring section of Apex Road

The City of Iqaluit will lay real pavement on the badly pot-holed section of Apex Road between the Road to Nowhere and the Arctic Winter Games arena.

At a meeting of the city’s committee of engineering and public works, city councillors voted to concentrate on this infamously rough stretch of road for this year’s paving program.

But Apex Road’s gain is Federal Road’s loss.

Earlier plans for paving in 2010 would have paved Federal Road between the new RCMP headquarters to an area just past the Baffin Correctional Centre.

Federal Road was chipsealed in 2006, but the chipseal has degraded far more quickly than city engineers anticipated. That chipseal will have to be ripped out when paving takes place.

The road is now a dangerous mess of potholes that risks pedestrian and motorist safety and accelerates wear-and-tear on automotive suspensions and steering columns.

The city will also pave a small stretch of the road that runs past the Arctic Circle Dental Clinic between Tundra Valley and Apex Road.

The road between the start of Tundra Valley to Happy Valley will receive a second layer of asphalt, which will bring it into line with most of the rest of the city’s paved roads.

The council also voted to use up the last of the $12 million contribution that Ottawa gave Iqaluit in 2008 for road paving.

Any unused money would have reverted back to the federal government.

The remaining cash represents about five per cent of the original sum, said Iqaluit’s chief administrative officer, John Hussey.

It’s enough to pave about one km of road surface, a small bonus over the 20 kilometres originally planned under the program.

City council has yet to decide where that one km will be. Options under consideration include the start of the West 40, Federal Road near the municipal garage and the road leading up to the Plateau subdivision.

The three-year’s worth of funding for the paving program will end this summer.

There are still unpaved areas in Iqaluit ready to be paved once the City finds more, especially parts of the Uivvaq neighbourhood below Astro Hill.

Other parts of Uivvaq and most of the downtown core’s business district couldn’t be paved yet even if the city had the money, because the city wants to eliminate the need for trucked water and sewage services in those areas.

The roads there can’t be paved until utilidor pipes are installed, which would require ripping the roads up.