Editor,
Re: West Fraser Road washout
My questions are – why were all these studies and surveys not done or even started after the washout in 2015? We were told that they were only temporarily fixing the road for the winter of 2015, and then fixing it in the spring of 2016. It never happened. We had no big run off so once again we were put on the back burner.
Whatever happened to the survey that was done years ago with a different route up the hill?
How are families suppose to make ends meet now, when they have all these extra expenses added to they monthly bills? Some are living paycheque to paycheque already; now they have extra fuel, extra repairs to their vehicles, windshields, also tires. I personally bought new tires this spring and they are already down to 56 per cent tread left because of the gravel roads we now have to travel with our little cars. These tires are not designed for gravel. Who’s going to help with all these added expenses?
How are these new mileage signs suppose to help when they don’t even match the mileage signs that are already there? Most of them won’t even be seen in the dark. And they are not very tall. When we get lots of snow and we are lucky enough to get plowed out, they will be buried. When I measured one of them, the top of the number was at 4.5 feet.
We are told that the Garner Road will be looked after like they looked after the West Fraser Road. This scares me, because many times when I went to work the road was only plowed to the bottom of Deep Creek Hill from town. The rest of the road sometimes took days to be plowed. This was unacceptable then, and now would be worse because of the lack of houses on the Garner Road. Families and workers are on their own when they have break downs. On the weekends when I go into work, I can meet no one on this road. At 5:30 in the morning, this is a little scary.
Families are getting split up because of school or work, because some are starting to stay in town for the week or for a few days. This is a hardship on family members that stay at home.
After hearing about an accident that occurred north of Williams Lake, if Highway 97 north was closed for a period of time, vehicles would be re-routed through West Fraser Road, Webster Lake Road and then Garner Road. Most of these people are not accustomed to driving on 38 kilometres of gravel. They would not know that the bridge is single lane, as there are no signs to tell people. The cattle guards are not two lanes either. This really puts people lives at risk.
Not to mention the cattle on the road, because it is open range. Ranches have enough trouble keeping cattle safe without this added burden.
How is this acceptable?
Dawn Ohms
Quesnel, B.C.
