Dear editor:
Your article ‘SLS lobbies for residential road use’ raises some interesting points. The word “residential” accurately suggests that the roads in question were not built for heavy usage (over 40 tons). Neither Jamieson nor Richards Road can withstand the heavy truck use required by Spray Lake Sawmills. How do I know this?
An engineering report was conducted for the MD of Bighorn about 10 years ago advising that in critical sections of Jamieson Road, a complete rebuild was needed before any serious alterations could be made to the surface. In other words, the roadbed on which the pavement sits is inadequate and will eventually collapse. This is even true of Highway 40. The 1,200 truckloads of aggregate for post-flood repairs badly damaged Highway 40 in many places, requiring a rebuild and repaving.
SLS will be running thousands of heavily laden trucks over these roads, expecting our small community of only a few hundred taxpayers to foot the bill for damages. This is grossly unfair and unreasonable.
The MD of Bighorn receives no tax benefit from SLS. Even if it did, no single organization has the right to inflict massive, very expensive damages to community infrastructure.
More importantly, SLS has an obligation to ensure that its actions do not endanger anyone, including the children who travel on these roads in school buses.
On Jamieson Road, Richards Road and Highway 40, there are places where a long truck cannot stay in its lane while travelling around curves. Why is this? The curves weren’t built for trucks with long trailers. When this fact was brought to the attention of SLS a few years ago, the response was similar to the one cited in your article: “We use professional drivers. Don’t worry.”
But we do worry. Our roadways, our tax dollar, our safety and our children’s lives are important to us.
Hugh Pepper, former councillor in the MD of Bighorn
