Ashcroft Council voted down the notion of a paved walking track along Evans Road at the Apr. 13 meeting, at the same time acknowledging that the road is barely wide enough for the trucks currently using it.
“There are a numb number of things that need to happen in order to have a proper walkway,” said Mayor Jack Jeyes, who is also a retired Ministry of Transportation manager.
There is no consistent shoulder width, he pointed out. “People think there’s enough room but it’s actually quite narrow.”
Fencing would need to line the river side of the walkway and between that and the cement barricades, there would barely be enough room to walk: in some places there would be no room to walk.
“The costing for something like this is beyond us to build it the way the Village would be required to build it,” he said.
“We expect a road that there will be trucks on,” said Coun. Alf Trill. “We want it to be an industrial road but I look at it and I see a road leading to a farm. We want a road worthy of industry.
“I think we’re doing it an injustice if we just pave what’s there,” said Trill. “My concern is, is the road wide enough for traffic?”
If it’s wide enough for traffic, he said, the pedestrians would take care of themselves.
Parts of the land next to the road just drop off suddenly several metres leaving nothing for a walkway, said Coun. Barbara Roden. So, to build a pathway would require engineered drawings and fees.
“It is somewhat inadequate as an industrial road,” said Coun. Al Mertens, “yet we’re going to have it resurfaced (this summer), leaving us with the same substandard road. Where does that leave the village?”
“It was built to the standards of the day,” said Mayor Jeyes. They are still the standards. Will the asphalt last for 40 years? Probably not.”
He said the resurfacing does not count as making improvements to the road, and it can still be altered at a later date if the money becomes available
Coun. Roden said the resurfacing will help traffic avoid the potholes.
