Complaints continue to snowball over road conditions, particularly out Highway 6.
The stretch of highway between Vernon and Lumby have been packed with ice and snow following recent storms. And Coldstream’s mayor has had enough.
“The standards of winter maintenance aren’t what they should be,” said Mayor Jim Garlick.
The district of Coldstream is writing a letter to the province to express concerns regarding the level of road maintenance service being provided on Highway 6 through Coldstream.
“We’ve heard from our firemen there are some concerns, especially in Lavington,” said Garlick. “Little or no sand is visible on the highway.
“We are asking that the highway receive more plowing and sanding in a timely manner in order to avoid the dangerous driving conditions experienced this winter. If the snow plowing and sanding is not carried out soon during storms, the snow becomes compacted into ice.
The letter is hoped to result in improvements.
AIM Roads is the contractor in charge of highway maintenance, and the company defends that all roads are being looked after.
“Every road that we maintain is done in less than 48 hours after the storm has ended,” Gabriel Nava, Operations Manager, told Black Press.
READ MORE: Rural Shuswap residents unimpressed with winter road maintenance
But some motorists are not impressed.
“AIM ‘doing their best’ is all fine and dandy except that their best is worse than JPW’s worst,” said Kiri Adams, on the Around the Block Lumby Facebook page. “Almost 11 years living in Lumby, driving back and forth to Vernon daily, and I’ve never seen the highways this consistently awful. But hey, rave to not getting a single rock ding in the windshield this winter.”
Dennis Burr also commented on the roads Tuesday.
“Just drove to Vernon and back, Highway 6 is an ice rink,” said Burr on the page. “No sign of sanding trucks anywhere.”
Meanwhile others commend the road conditions.
“I just came back from Vernon (Tuesday) and the roads were well-sanded, a little icy with some compact snow in Vernon but it was otherwise driveable at reasonable speeds,” said Shandra MacNiven on the same page.
READ MORE: Many Vernon roads remain an ice rink
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jennifer@vernonmorningstar.com
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