A big pat-themselves-on-the-back billboard in Tete Jaune brags about governmental infrastructure investment but it’s unfathomable what decision-making process resulted in perfectly smooth and relatively new pavement being exchanged for seal-coat after the crack sealing. When the dust, loose material, and general resentment over delays settles, what we end up with is an inferior product on what should be a top-grade road surface. The wavy unevenness will, no doubt, result in damage from winter plows and increased wear on blades which would already be a factor with the rougher pebbled surface. The latter is also a source of increased rolling noise, tire wear-and-tear, and cracked windshields. We, locals, bear these hidden costs and likely others.
To add further insult to this already injurious situation, through some infinite bureaucratic wisdom a culvert was, once again, installed after the completion of a resurfacing job. One might think they’d have learned this lesson after the nasty slow order at the west end of the last paving project near Jeck Road, but no. We’ve suffered with a gaping cross-rut slow-order on the Dunster straight stretch for years, and now it’s actually worse!
It’s really hard to believe that we pay taxes to be serviced with such incompetence, but it shouldn’t be. Just look at the track record of successive governments in dealing with Dunster’s billionaire hunting project land grab on our A.L.R. while young farmers struggle to afford a start-up and our population ages out with zero services.
This letter isn’t a specific attack on the NDP, or even indifferent billionaires. There is a clear ongoing disconnect visible in the retrograde investment and scant attentiveness here. Sure, the South is voter central, but this is the second Trans Canada highway, and our community matters.
Perhaps the governmental cost saving will be funneled into the future rebuilding of Highway 5 after Trans Mountain’s trampling, so at least our travel towards the highways of the lucky voters that seem to matter can happen in relative smoothness for the majority of the drive. But that’s unlikely. We are probably paying the price for Highway 1’s smooth twinning from the Alberta border to Kamloops through Rogers Pass or some mega project in the Lower Mainland.
When the rubber hits the road, we are definitely over-taxed, and under-serviced and any complaints are likely to fall on deaf ears or numb minds and left unanswered.
The intentional disregard for our needs is unconscionable.
Rob Mercereau
Dunster, B.C.
