City of Regina to use recycled asphalt to control dusty roads

Dust has been coming off gravel sections of Winnipeg Street North and Pinkie Road, which has been coating nearby properties all summer. Residents in the area have been complaining to the city, and now a new fix is on the way.

“We’re going to place about a four to six inch (10 to 15 centimetre) layer of milled asphalt on the roadways,” Norman Kyle, director of roadways and transportation with the City of Regina,said.

“So that’ll act as a cap over the gravel, and it should reduce or eliminate the dust

Milled asphalt is placed in areas where roadwork is taking place as a temporary driving surface. Usually once a job is done, the milled asphalt is hauled back to the city stockpiles, but for now it will go to Winnipeg St. and Pinkie Road.

“Because we’re using recycled materials right off the construction site, it’s only costing the trucking costs and grading costs to put it down,” Kyle explained.

Kyle added he’s seen fixes like this last “quite a while” in other cities he’s worked in.

For affected residents, they hope this actually limits the dust after previous fixes only provided short-term relief.

READ MORE: Some Regina roads are creating a dust-up between residents and the city.

“If you were to wash your backyard, the deck and the patio, some mornings and expect to host a barbecue in the evening you couldn’t do it,” Cliff Hubick, whose backyard is beside Winnipeg Street, said.

“You couldn’t do it because of the dust.”

The road work on Winnipeg Street North is scheduled to begin on August 22 and the Pinkie Road job will begin on August 29. Pinkie Road will also be closed for two days while the work takes place.