An unusual-looking van outfitted with lasers and cameras is cruising the streets of Prince George this month.
The Pavement Surface Profiler operated by Tetra Tech will be gathering data on the city's 1,300 kilometres of roads. The equipment documents every road defect and uses that information to provide a condition score for each segment of road, according to a press release issued by the city.
“The city invests millions of dollars every year in road rehabilitation and this information – along with other factors, such as traffic volumes – is central to determining which roads around the city are in greatest need of re-paving and also allows us to effectively target pothole repair,” said Mick Jones, city supervisor of streets operations.
It's the second time the city has conducted such a comprehensive analysis of local roads. The first assessment was done in 2016-17. Since then, more than 95 per cent of city streets that were classified in poor or fair condition have been re-paved.
More than 40 lane-kilometres of road are scheduled for repaving in the city this year, at a cost of $5.7 million.
