Editor's note: The photo accompanying this letter is from the November storm – a temporary fix is in place, so the road no longer looks like this. Sorry for any confusion we caused.
Editor:
Day Road flooded out in two places last November, cutting off access to the rest of the Coast. Capilano Highways reunited us with a temporary fix three days later, for which we were most grateful, promising us a permanent fix as soon as they had dealt with the rest of the emergencies. Unfortunately, due to a lack of long enough culverts, they gave us a narrow single-lane dirt version of its usual double lane over the steep drop-off to the creek.
There are not many houses on this stretch, so we appreciate that we did not rise to the top of their list immediately. However, there are sometimes up to 50 walkers a day using the trails accessed from the end of the road so we actually see a lot more traffic than the number of houses would lead one to imagine, with the commensurate wear of their cars on the temporary fix. One of our neighbours has now been refused propane delivery because the truck driver is understandably worried about the crossing, which gets a little scarier with every rain. Will the garbage collectors or fire department refuse us services next?
When a neighbour called Capilano recently, they were told Sechelt had its potholes filled because they were getting 10 calls a day about them. We have been respectful and waited our turn. I don’t want to behave like a bully and hound the powers that be. I am sure the staff there would rather we all didn’t either.
We are just asking for our road back coming up to five months since the emergency. It has all those same potholes it has had for years and we can deal with those if we have to (no invalidation intended to the people who called about the Sechelt potholes), but please respect us in turn by making the road a safe width again.
PS: Thank you Scott Gemmell, for coming out of retirement to give us a temporary fix since I wrote this. Our hero!
With respect,
Anna Wright, Roberts Creek
