Drivers may find it frustrating, but the capital city says there is good reason why it relies on grind and patch for road maintenance.

The work of cutting out damaged pavement and filling in the gaps, begins apace each spring.

St. John’s has some 1,400 lane kilometres of road to maintain, and not all can be rehabilitated at the same time according to Mayor Danny Breen.

That’s why grind and patch is used as city officials rank its roads rehabilitation priorities.

For that reason, says Breen, grind and patch is effective in that it does fill in smaller patches until full rehabilitation can be done.

For example says Breen, “you may have a street that is awaiting cost-sharing on bigger projects for underground services. So you wouldn’t go in and pave a street knowing that you’re going to be tearing it up very soon to replace some of the underground (infrastructure). ”

“So all of that is taken into account.”