SURREY - With summer in full swing and the sun shining (for the most part), it's not only the time of year when Surrey's parks and trails are in high demand, but also the time when Surrey's roads receive their annual makeover.

But while delays and reroutes are an inevitable consequence of roadwork, the construction is something that's deemed necessary by the City of Surrey and, according to Ken Zondervan, manager of design and construction for the city, something that's moving along nicely for 2012.

"We've completed quite a good portion of our annual paving program already, but we do have a number of individual project locations that are just wrapping up over the next couple of days," he said. "Then we have a number of new projects that will be starting next week."

Some of the projects beginning next week include repaving 148th Street between 68th and 72nd avenues, 96th Avenue between 185th and 192nd streets and 144th Street between 25th and 28th avenues.

One of the bigger projects this summer will be the repaving of King George Boulevard from 108th Avenue all the way down to the Pattullo Bridge, which will be starting on Aug. 13.

"That project will be restricted to night work," explained Zondervan, "One of the factors for that is the traffic volume. On our busiest collectors we generally look at doing night work."

On top of repaving, Zondervan also noted that several road-widening projects are either currently underway, or would be starting up soon.

The widening includes 192nd Street between 68th and 72nd avenues, and Fraser Highway between the Serpentine River Bridge and 168th Street.

"The road-widening projects of course will take longer but we always accommodate traffic through those sites," he said. "We try to balance out the various impact and inconvenience to people."

As for the roadwork currently ongoing, such as the widening of Fraser Highway by Highway 15 en route to Langley and the repaving of 152nd Street in Guildford, Zondervan said those projects would be finishing up within a week or two.

According to Zondervan, roadwork season for the City of Surrey is typically between May and October.

For a full list on roadwork to be completed for 2012, as well as other projects such as water mains, drainage and sewer work, go to www.surrey.ca/plans-strategies/3138.aspx.

cpoon@thenownewspaper.com