As reported earlier this week in the Bulletin, a group of Kimberley residents, fed up with the icy condition of Overwaitea hill, gathered to salt and sand it on their own.
Organizer of the actions, Michelle Nex, told the Bulletin that she called the contractor, Mainroad, to complain about the condition of the hill but didn’t see any change in conditions.
“I’m just really tired of the lack of a proper response when we call in road conditions and the fact that road conditions are absolutely deplorable, and in some cases treacherous” said Nex. “I called in, they say to call in and they have a response time, but it doesn’t seem that we’re getting much of a response and when we do get a response, it seems like it’s just not working. I think the specs that the government sets are a bit too low. They aren’t what they should be as to what our conditions can be…
“The roads are just terrible, they aren’t safe. I don’t want my children and my grandchildren driving on those roads. I don’t want to lose any more people. It’s just enough; enough is enough,” Nex said.
Kimberley Council also voted this week to send a letter to the Regional Manager, Ron Sharp, Ministry of Transportation and infrastructure, expressing concern about the state of the roads.
Initially, Council had thought to contact MLA Doug Clovechok with their concerns but Mayor Don McCormick didn’t think that was the correct action.
However, Clovechok has already been contacted by Nex. Clovechok responded, saying his offices were getting calls from all over the riding about similar conditions and he does encourage people to keep calling Mainroad. He also promised to contact the regional manager.
The following is the response from the regional office.
“The District Manager, Ron Sharp, asked me to look into the complaint your office received today concerning the above noted portion of highway 95A. Last Thursday, the 8thof February, the weather station at Kimberley reported a 12 cm snowfall. This event occurred over a three hour period ending at approximately 7 p.m. that evening. The contractor responded to the weather event and the highway was plowed leaving a compact road surface. That evening the road temperature fell to -14.2 c. At that temperature the de-icing liquids the contractor uses do not remove compact snow. The contractor now has to resort to ice blading and using abrasives. Ice blading is done with a grader using a toothed blade. This accomplishes two things. It provides more surface area so that the compact build will sublimate more rapidly and it also provides a grooved surface that holds the abrasive on the roadway. The picture sent to you shows the presence of grooves and abrasives. Road safety is the Ministry’s highest priority and we are actively working with the contractor to improve the conditions at that site.”
Clovechok passed on that replay to Nex, who told him that while she understands the methods, she doesn’t think they are enough, and that surely there was a product available that worked better at lower temperatures.
Clovechok promised to continue to “put pressure on the MOTI and the contractor to up their game”.