River Heights resident Jerry de Winter is fed up.
After three years of living at the northeast end of River Heights Drive, putting up with incessant gravel truck traffic that begins before the 7 a.m. town noise bylaw permits, de Winter wants to see some relief.
“These guys start at 6:20 a.m., the dust is remarkable,” said de Winter, indicating that trucks can often be seen speeding down the hill toward the Riviera community, indicating skid marks on the pavement.
The relief is only a few weeks away, following some delays, in the form of an alternate gravel road that would re-route industrial traffic through the subdivision, keeping the trucks off River Heights Drive.
“The estimated completion date (of the gravel road) is toward the end of July, pushed a month later than originally anticipated due to heavy (spring) rainfall,” said councillor Jeff Toews.
Cam Heart, general manager of area developer Tamani, said there are some misconceptions surrounding the ‘contentious issue’ — namely that the developer owns the land where the gravel road is being built.
“Tamani is a contributor to the construction of the gravel road, but is not managing the process and does not own the land that the road is being built on.”
Heart explained that private landowners own the land and that these landowners formed a group around two and a half years ago to come up with the road alignment and begin building the road.
“It’s a huge win for everybody,” said Heart, adding that because of the involvement from different landowners, the process took time.
Heart also stressed that the gravel pit was in operations and existed long before Tamani began developing the area into a residential community.
For de Winter, he hopes that the end is in sight and he can finally have some peace and quiet.
