City hopes to begin painting road lines soon, weather permitting
SAINT JOHN – The city's road marking and line painting should begin in the next couple of weeks, weather depending, and if it seems like it fades quickly throughout the year, it's because federal regulations force the city to use water-based paint.
That's what Public Works Director Tim O'Reilly told council at the last meeting when he was asked by Mayor Donna Reardon why the city uses water-based paint when it fades so quickly during the year. Federal regulations state that oil-based paint cannot be used, he said, between May 1-Oct. 15 for environmental protection reasons.
And with Saint John weather being what it is, he later told Brunswick News they would not be able to use the longer-lasting oil-based paint in the timeframe allowed.
The city will spend $143,730.33 plus HST – $165,289.88 – on road paint this year, according to the Public Works report. Each year city staff paints approximately 400 km of lines and 3,300 traffic markings, with yellow and white lines, bike lane lines, directional symbols and crosswalk lines on the list. O'Reilly expressed frustration at the fact that water-based paint does fade faster and said they are studying alternatives.
He said the city does use a 3M tape in some areas. There's also a plastic material that is melted into the surface with a heat source. As well, they have experimented with a chemical product called methyl methacrylate, which is a two-component traffic-paint liquid that consists of a resin and a catalyst that hardens into place.
'What we've found is that with those (alternatives), they don't last any more than a couple of years, and the application cost is certainly greater than a water-based paint,' he said. 'So we just haven't found that right product that lasts longer and is more economical for us (to use) than water-based paint.'
About 80 per cent of the city's paint is procured from a company called Stinson Equipment, for which the city has what is called a 'sole-source procurement.' That agreement was put into place in 2016 because the Quebec-based company provided the quality the city needed.
'Prior to that year, we had a couple of years in a row we had suppliers that provided us with paint that clogged up our machines and impeded our ability to get the painting done on schedule in those years,' he said. 'We've been sole sourcing just to that one company, which has consistently been providing us paint that works well.'
O'Reilly said in the hopes of cutting down on expenses, the city opened up the bidding process last year, with 20 per cent of the paint now coming from Sherwin-Williams. Going forward, the remaining 20 per cent will be purchased by a competitive process with pre-qualified vendors.
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