BX residents believe better road maintenance could prevent crashes

Problem corner in BX

Photo: PickPik

Few solutions for problem road in BX

Every time it snows, a number of BX residents find themselves waiting to hear the crushing sounds of a car crash in their neighbourhood.

Last Tuesday’s snowfall delivered just that when several motorists found themselves in a heap at the bottom of Hartnell Rd. by Dixon Dam Rd. during their morning commute.

Mike McNab lives in the area and has called AIM Roads to complain about treacherous driving conditions at that intersection several times already this season. “My frustration is that AIM has access to excellent weather forecasting models so they can anticipate problems but they seem to wait until the problem arises on the non-arterial roads,” he says.

McNab's neighbours take turns plowing and understand their road’s classification makes it less of a priority for winter maintenance. But they believe the grade of the road should be a factor in determining priority. “A flat road is easy to navigate with 10 cm of snow. A 15% grade road is completely different,” McNab says.

According to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the grade of the road is taken into consideration, “On steeper roads with over 5% grade, such as Hartnell Road, the maintenance contractor’s response time to restore traction is faster compared to flatter roads of the same road class.”

MOTI tells Castanet its managers regularly patrol provincial roads in all types of weather to ensure contractors are meeting ministry standards for response times, traction and snow clearing; working with contractors to resolve concerns quickly.

McNab questions the ministry’s definition of “quickly” and would instead encourage MOTI to review it's contract with AIM Roads and hand out penalties for poor performance.

The public can report any local road concerns in the Okanagan-Shuswap area directly to AIM Roads at 1-866-222-4204.