The poor condition of the access road to the Hay River Reserve has been raised in the legislative assembly.
On March 12, Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli noted the ice crossing over the Hay River will soon be closing.
"Unfortunately, people will soon be dodging the pockmarks and potholes that riddle the chip seal of the all-season access road linking the reserve to the highway and into Hay River," he said. "Last fall, the access road was at its worst. There are drainage problems in addition to the cracks and potholes. People do slow down, but the fact is that too many surface hazards compromise the safety of the road."
Nadli noted that residents complained that the road was so bad that it was causing damage to their vehicles.
"I have raised this issue with the minister of Infrastructure before and remember that there were plans to repair and resurface the road," he said.
Nadli asked Infrastructure Minister Wally Schumann about plans to repair and resurface the access road.
Schumann noted that there was a major reconstruction on that section of road between Highway 5 and the Hay River Reserve in 2010.
"We continue to have issues with this moving forward," he said. "There are continued drainage issues along this road that we are trying to address. We have done a significant ditching program this past summer, last year, to address some of this, and we are looking at how we will continue to improve on it. We have had to return some of the chipseal to gravel to address some of the issues on this section of road, and we will continue to have a look at it going forward."
Nadli asked if the Department of Infrastructure assesses the road to be safe.
"This section of road is regularly maintained by the department," replied Schumann. "Repairs and drainage improvements are done as required. We will continue to assess this road as we move forward, as I have said, and we will make sure that it is open for public use and that it is safe."
The minister said engineers from the department will assess the problems this spring.
"We are going to do a topographical survey of this section of road to help identify what we need to remediate this section of road, what efforts need to be put into it, and what challenges we have on ongoing maintenance going forward," said Schumann. "Once we have the engineering people go in there and have a look at it, then we will see what we are going to do going forward."