The life of the party
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
“Hey now! There’s nothing boring about potholes!” Julia-Simone Rutgers, our Manitoba reporter, has a new obsession that’s become an all-consuming topic of conversation at her dinner parties (yes, really). You see, it has been a record year (not the good kind) for potholes in Winnipeg, thanks to an onslaught of spring storms. Those storms, expected to become more frequent as the climate changes, sent the city’s pavement crumbling — forcing crews to fill in a whopping 211,500 potholes (!) and counting in 2022.
As she dug into the issue, Julia-Simone found out there’s an entire research team in Manitoba dedicated to the science of pavement. She joined them in the lab where they’re figuring out how to future-proof our roads to withstand the rigours of climate change.
It’s a problem that’s far from unique to Winnipeg: take B.C.’s Coquihalla Highway, which was torn apart by the impacts of last year’s atmospheric river.
Then there’s the whole matter of funding: infrastructure debt has reached somewhere in the range of $200 billion nationwide thanks to funding cuts, neglect and a growing number of extreme climate events. In Winnipeg alone, the figure sits at roughly $7 billion.
“Kudos to my partner for listening to me talk through the numbers out loud while she tried to nap,” Julia-Simone told me.
So what are cities doing about it? Winnipeg’s newly elected mayor, Scott Gillingham, wants to fix up the city’s roads and widen highways. But climate-focused solutions? They were largely absent from the election. Julia-Simone delved into what Canada’s coldest city should be up to — and how we can tackle the country’s growing road problems.
Take care and bring pothole preoccupations to potlucks,
Arik Ligeti
Director of audience
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