Steamroller flattening new asphal. City crew visible further down the streey near other machinery.

Road restoration and improvements

We plan and deliver major capital paving projects as well as regular maintenance work to keep streets safe and clear, such as:

Filling potholes
Sealing cracks
Making emergency repairs

Planning and prioritizing restoration projects
We prioritize road work and restoration based on:
- Severity of the road condition
- Traffic volume
- Number of users impacted
- Service requests
- Opportunity to coordinate with other projects in the area to maximize the benefits of limited funding
Funding

We manage more than 1,400 km of roads and 770 km of lanes.
- $22.5 million for arterial roads and $13 million for local roads have been allocated in capital funding to road restoration work, which will rehabilitate roughly 33 km of road — about 2.5% of our road network — between 2023 and 2026.
- TransLink’s annual Major Road Network (MRN) Operations, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation (OMR) Program funds road and sidewalk restoration on our MRN.
How we restore roads

On a typical street restoration project, we:
- Remove the top surface of the existing asphalt and repave it.
- Remove and replace additional layers of the asphalt, and sometimes the base material underneath the roadway, when an area of the road has more significant deterioration.
Restoration methods include:
- Thin lift overlay (TLO)
  - Adds a layer of asphalt on the existing surface and can bridge minor to moderate cracks, rutting, and other defects.
  - Provides additional structural strength to the pavement structure.
- Grind and overlay
  - Removes the top 50 mm to 100 mm of pavement by grinding before placing a new surface asphalt layer.
Did you know?

When we restore roads, it may include the addition of green infrastructure, plazas, bike lanes, or street trees.
Maintenance
Weather, traffic, soil type, and underground utilities can create challenges with road maintenance.

To preserve and maintain our roads, we coordinate our efforts to plan and execute maintenance work, such as:
- Cleaning and maintaining roadways 365 days a year
- Sealing cracks to keep water out and prevent long-term pavement damage
- Applying timely pothole repairs to reduce the frequency of larger, more expensive rehabilitation work
Streets and sidewalks in areas built on peat can be challenging to maintain and may require more frequent maintenance.