Editor:
Open Letter to Hon. Thomson and Hon. Stone
During 2014 I wrote you several letters concerning the use of Colleymount Rd. by commercial logging trucks. Other concerned residents of Colleymount Rd. also wrote letters of grave concern about the use of Colleymount as an industrial haul road. As you should now be aware, Colleymount Rd. is a rural road that was built in the 60’s mainly for access to Alcan. It was never built to the standards of today’s roads nor was it meant to haul logs on. It is a curvy, very narrow in lots of places and many many blind corners. This was all brought to your attention during 2014. I have an entire file about 1 inch thick of my correspondences with you and the local area managers.
I am also sure you have been advised of the group of local Colleymount residents (called The Colleymount Working Group) who recently sent a petition with close to 1000 signatures to you raising concerns about the deplorable conditions of this road….sink holes, huge pots holes, parts of the road sliding into the lake. I could go on and on but won’t since you have been advised of all these conditions.
Yes, this past summer some improvements were made….brushing to make parts of the road more visible and widening an area that was falling into the lake, patching a sink hole area that was about three feet deep, etc. etc.
The reason for this letter is to inform you of exactly what we residents have been fearing all along.
I am attaching 4 pictures of an accident that occurred today between a loaded log truck meeting a contracted grader along a narrow section of Colleymount Rd at approximately 51 kms. I don’t have pictures of the grader but apparently the blade was completely broken in the accident and the log truck went over the bank. It is now sitting on its side with diesel fuel leaking into Francois Lake and its load of logs in the water. Fortunately, it has been reported that both drivers are not seriously injured. I have not verified this. It is an absolute miracle that the log truck driver was not killed.
You can expect more of these accidents unless major upgrades are made to this road or the log trucks are forced to use the industrial road that was built for them to haul logs on…it’s called "The Morice Nadina Haul Road”.
We would appreciate your attention to this matter and for once do something about this road.
Sincerely,
Judy Stratton
Colleymount, BC