Bridesville residents say road conditions are unacceptable
By Erin Perkins
Bridesville residents have had enough and they let the government and Emcon know it.
On the evening of Monday, Dec. 12, more than 60 people packed the Bridesville Community Hall to discuss what they feel is a deteriorating road service in their area.
Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater, two Emcon employees and Stephanie Gillis, a representative from the Ministry of Transporation who oversees Emcon out of Grand Forks, were also in attendance to hear what the community had to say.
“What started (the meeting) was when I couldn’t get up my road one night,” said Jill Kellerman, a local resident for more than 20 years. It had been two days since the snow had fallen when she attempted to get home — a time frame she expected would have been fine for the road clearing to have been done.
Kellerman lives on Kelly Road in Bridesville and says the winter road conditions on her road, and even on main roads like Highway 3, have become increasingly worse over the last few years.
Kellerman decided to write some letters including one to the Ministry of Transportation in Victoria.
She said Emcon Services Ltd., who is contracted by the government to do road maintenance and winter snow removal services in the Kootenay Boundary region, is not removing snow soon enough after it has fallen so that a layer of compacted snow is formed from passing vehicles. They then salt the compacted snow, which turns to slush and freezes over the next night.
“The road is not being scraped,” said Kellerman. “The compact snow would have never built up in the past.”
The road condition issues in the Bridesville area aren’t new. Last November the Boundary School District Board of Education cancelled the bus route that went from Hwy. 3 to Alden Road in the Mount Baldy area due to safety concerns surrounding road maintenance and winter road conditions.
Emcon Kootenay Boundary Division manager, Joe Mottishaw, said the bus route closure was not due to Emcon but a “conscious decision (by the board) not to go up those kinds of roads … (the board) cut out remote areas as an operational decision.”
Mottishaw was not at the meeting in Bridesville because he was in Vancouver for a work-related meeting, but he did send two representatives on his behalf who then reported back to him.
He said Emcon uses their salt and sand responsibly — an issue that was brought up in the meeting — and at the plow driver’s discretion.
“Our families drive on these roads too,” he said.
While Emcon does most of Bridesville, they have sub-contracted the Mount Baldy area. Christina Lake, Rossland and Castlegar are also areas with sub-contractors. Mottishaw said sub-contractors are as responsible as his full-time work force. They must report to, get direction from and be inspected by Emcon regularly.
“His work is our work,” he said of subcontractors. “We hire him.”
Angie Meissner, a mother of three who lives off Alden Road, also attended the meeting and has called the ministry so many times over the past few years that she recognized the voices of the government representatives who attended the meeting — including Stephanie Gillis. Meissner’s own road is plowed by a sub-contractor of Emcon and he does a great job. However, the rest of the roads she drives to go to work in Osoyoos aren’t as good.
“All we’re hearing is excuses and excuses,” she said of the response by the government to residents’ complaints.
Art Harfman, a lifetime resident and a former bus driver from 1987 to 2005, said it’s only been in the last three to five years that he’s had an issue with the roads.
“I had a good relationship with Emcon (when I was a bus driver) and they looked after the roads very well,” said Harfman, who also attended the meeting.
“But over the last three to five years the roads seem to be neglected more and more and there is a slower response time.”
Harfman expects a reasonable response time and cleared highways. He understands that side roads are a lower priority and he is okay with that. During the first winter storm of the season Harfman said four hours after the snow began to fall the highway was not cleared or sanded.
“This is not acceptable. We have truckers who service our country with their products and it’s not fair that we don’t look after the highway to allow the delivery of goods,” said Harfman.
The loss of services isn’t limited to the winter. Meissner said she noticed that garbage removal is infrequent; the ditches aren’t being mowed so that it’s harder to see wildlife coming onto the road and the grading of her gravel road is substandard.
“It looks like we’re getting less and less services,” she said.
Kellerman suggests that one of the reasons the roads don’t seem to be cleared frequently enough or well enough is a lack of staff.
Mottishaw said while they may have less people, they have more efficient equipment including double bladed trucks that can clear two lanes in one swipe.
They also do a lot of pre-storm prep work.
“We try to get out ahead of the storms and watch the weather forecasts,” said Mottishaw. “There’s more science to it than throwing a truck out there.”
Everyone who attended the meeting agreed that the service they used to get was really good.
So what’s changed?
“We feel we have (enough staff and contractors) to keep the (government) standards,” said Mottishaw. “It is winter in the Interior and all we ask is that people drive to the conditions. Drivers share the responsibility along with us.”
Kellerman, who initated the meeting, was pleased to be heard but isn’t sure what will come of it.
“It was a really good meeting and I was really pleased with the turnout,” she said.
The community has formed an informal watch dog group to monitor the roads over the winter. Kellerman suspects things may improve for awhile now Emcon is being watched.
And things are already looking up. The ploughs had been down Kellerman’s road by 9:30 a.m. after the snowfall in the early hours of Dec. 15 — much earlier than she expected.
Emcon contract requires following government guidelines
Emcon and other government contractors must adhere to a set of standards set out by the provincial government.
In the case of Emcon, the snow removal guidelines are very clear. In order, the first thing they must remove snow from is the highways, followed by the school bus routes and secondary highways and finally they must clear the side roads. All this happens within a two day period. Then, within two to seven days they must have the shoulders of the highways cleared.
Emcon Kootenay Boundary Division manager, Joe Mottishaw said the ministry performs as many as 44 financial audits a year on his division of Emcon and they’re out alongside his ploughs checking the jobs.
“The ministry was out at 6 a.m. checking how we did through the night. That’s their mandate,” he said.
The ministry even tells contractors how much sand they need to budget for.
Mottishaw said 36,000 cubic meters of sand is alloted for this district a year. But he can decide to use more and did. Last year he said he used 60,000 cubic meters of sand because the weather was so bad.
Mottishaw said he feels the province-wide standards being set out by the Ministry of Transportation are adaquate for this area.
Emcon’s current contract started Oct. 2, 2003 and runs for the usual 10 year duration until Oct. 1, 2013. The value of the contract at signing was $10,672,662 but can be adjusted to reflect wage increases and higher material costs.
For more information about Highway Snow Removal standards as set out in the contract go to: www.th.gov.bc.ca/BCHighways/contracts/maintenance/Schedule_21_Maintenance_Specifications.pdf and look under Highway Snow Removal for a complete schedule and time frame snow removal must occur within.
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