Editors Note: An earlier version of this story misidentified Coun. Gary Cromwell's division. He was elected in Division 6.
ATHABASCA – An otherwise unassuming stretch of roadway that gives northern Athabasca County residents quicker access to Lac La Biche County has turned into a hot topic for debate after councillors didn’t include upgrades for it in this year’s capital budget.
During the Sept. 26 regular council meeting, county councillors heard from Jack Dowhaluk, a former county councillor and long-time representative of the Wandering River area, who said the road’s deteriorating condition is posing more and more of a problem each day.
“Due to the condition of the connector, people are using the Bluejay Road (Twp. Rd. 682), and the Yellow Bridge Road (Twp. Rd. 685A),” said Dowhaluk. “It’s big vehicles that keep going through that road and over the bridge — that bridge is going to need replacing, and then the roads are going to need rebuilding.”
The Plamondon Connector Road, Range Road 172, has been a constant point of discussion over the summer. Coun. Gary Cromwell was elected in Division 6, and he’s been a vocal proponent for the paving project to be completed; the main complaint from locals is that heavy industry traffic does substantial damage to the gravel, which makes it difficult to drive on.
“Sometimes you need four-wheel drive to go down the road, depending on how long the rain lasts for,” said Joseph Jenkins, a local farmer who spoke with Town and Country back in August.
“I’ve had an accident on that road, my sister-in-law had an accident due to the rough road conditions.”
According to Dowhaluk, the locals use the road for a variety of purposes: shopping trips to Plamondon, trips to and from school, and quicker access to medical care have all been cited as reasons the road needs to be improved.
“It’s a safety concern, that road is impassable a lot of the time,” he said. “People just turn around — they won’t travel that road if you get an inch or two of rain. Even this little rain we had (Sept. 25) made it not very good.”
Athabasca County is currently working on a five-year plan for its hard surfacing projects, which administration is ranking off a set list of criteria.
“I have no doubt this road is one that the admin is very aware of and will be the one that is first to get ranked,” said Reeve Brian Hall.
Some of councils proposed ideas included placing a weight restriction on the road, which would help prevent semi-trucks from tearing up the gravel, but Dowhaluk said he didn’t think it was likely to work.
“I know this shouldn’t be a big problem because they should just go down the highway and go through Atmore, but people just don’t do that,” said Dowhaluk. “They see a shortcut, and they’re going to take the shortest route possible.”
Not every councillor was happy with the language Dowhaluk used in his presentation. Coun. Ashtin Anderson asked Dowhaluk how he ranked projects after a statement made where said he, “looked forward to hearing the reasons why this urgent project has not begun.”
“I’ve lived in this area for 70 years now. I don’t think there’s a road in the county that’s more in need of upgrading than that road,” he said. “It almost has to be done, immediately I would say. We could live with the fact that it’s going to be put on a five-year plan, but is it going to happen? I would like to know that.”
Dowhaluk isn’t the only area resident with doubts about the project going through. In August Jenkins said promises to fix the road have been going on for so long they’ve become a joke.
“We’ve been hearing, ‘We’re going to pave it next year, we’re going to fix it next year,’ for so long,” he said.
“Somebody told me this time, ‘Well, at least they didn’t say that they’ll pave it next year.’”
