By Scott Strasser
A steady stream of dump trucks passing through Royal Vista Way and Majestic Drive is irritating some residents in east Courtenay.
Crown Isle resident Brian McKay said that since May, hundreds of trips have been made through the neighbourhood by large trucks transporting soil to a storage area to the east of Crown Isle. The trucks are carrying the leftover spoil from development projects occurring in the area.
McKay reckons that at one point, trucks were making over 100 trips through Royal Vista Way each day. He and other residents in the neighbourhood are concerned with the effect of the trucks on the roads, as well as safety.
“A lot of these loads [they’re carrying] are not covered and they’re supposed to be,” said McKay. “Debris falls off. Our concern is that they’re going to beat up the roads really badly and it won’t be the developers who pay, it will be the taxpayers.”
The reason the trucks are using Royal Vista Way is because the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure closed off access from Ryan Road to the maintenance yard of the local golf course. The closure has forced the trucks to make detours through Crown Isle.
“They used to be able to go into that yard and use a perimeter road to go around to their site. The Ministry of Transportation closed access to that exit because they said it’s unsafe to be pulling onto Ryan Road with these big trucks,” McKay said.
He and other residents want to set up a meeting with the Courtenay engineering services department to discuss a solution to the issue. Crown Isle residents have filed a letter to the City of Courtenay, expressing their concerns.
The letter states residents of Crown Isle have not seen such high volume of traffic on Royal Vista Way in the last 15 years.
McKay said there could be other routes that the gravel trucks could use to transport their loads, but acknowledged they’re less convenient.
“Crown Isle Drive is eventually slated to be extended either to Ryan Road or straight east to Anderton Road. They could do something about early access there,” he said. “There is [also] road access from Anderton Road coming back into Crown Isle on a road called Atlas. It’s gated off but it could be opened and it could take trucks like that.”
The City of Courtenay included a response to residents’ concerns in the approved agenda for their Aug. 8 meeting. The response states that although Royal Vista Way is not a designated truck route, delivery of goods and services are allowed on all streets.
“…temporary construction exemptions exist for non-truck routes as it’s the only way to deliver construction goods,” the city’s response reads in part. “The intent of truck routes is for through-traffic to use designated roads only.”
The city’s response also states that enforcing secured truck loads falls under the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations and not their own jurisdiction. The city says that complainants should forward licence plate numbers to the provincial vehicle inspector at 1-888-775-8785.
