Revelstoke city council will be sending a letter to the provincial government requesting improved safety measures around Three Valley Gap on the Trans-Canada Highway.
The request follows a meeting Mayor Mark McKee had with a local resident about her dangerous experience on that stretch of road.
“The rock face at Three Valley Gap has continually sluffed rock and debris for years,” writes Shannon Smith in a follow-up email to McKee, which was shared with council during a regular meeting on Nov. 28.
She describes an accident on Oct. 17 when debris and trees slide down the slope and totalled her newly-purchased SUV. Smith also sustained a compression fracture on a vertebrae and muscle and nerve damage.
“If that boulder had been just a few feet farther along, she probably wouldn’t have been there to tell me the story about it,” said McKee.
The same day her vehicle was totalled, three others were also damaged, she writes.
“I know that section of highway is notorious for this, but I believe that we need to request that the Ministry of Transportation look at putting mesh on the rock bluff in question,” writes Smith. “I know that it’s a small request when there is so much that needs to be done there, but I believe that it will help create a safer passage thru [sic] Three Valley Gap.
“We need to make this section of highway safe for our citizens of Revelstoke and the traveling public.”
McKee said he had already spoken with Greg Kyllo, MLA for Shuswap and Doug Clovechok, MLA for Columbia River- Revelstoke. McKee requested that the letter also be sent to the two MLAs and to the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD). He said he would also ask that it be added to a CSRD meeting agenda.
“I strongly support council writing a letter,” said McKee. “Something more has to be done if this section of highway is not going to be fixed up to a proper and safe standard, then the least we could be doing is putting something like this mesh barrier in that you see everywhere else where debris can hit the highway.”
The motion passed unanimously.
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