Whitehorse road constantly causing flats has some residents, and their tires, deflated
Some residents living along the Takhini River Road in Whitehorse say the government's resurfacing work is worsening road conditions and causing numerous flat tires.
Cheri-Lee Walters takes the road daily to get to and from work. She recently got a flat tire on her way home and said she thinks it's because the government recently resurfaced the road.
"When they fix it they just come and dump rocks on the road," she said. "They don't pack it down. They don't do anything."
Walters said that in asking her neighbours about it, multiple people shared similar experiences.
"I just asked another neighbour and she's like yeah i had a flat tire too," Walters said. "And then another person had a flat tire. Another person just down from me had two flat tires at once."
Walters said a total of 15 people shared they had, at one point or another, gotten a flat tire while driving on the Takhini River road.
That feedback prompted Walters to reach out to MLA for Lake Laberge Brad Cathers, who said he's been pressing the Yukon Government on this issue for years.
MLA Brad Cathers says the Takhini River Road used to be a trail and was never properly built as a road. (Chris Windeyer/CBC)
He said the road used to be a trail, and over time as people started moving into the area, the Yukon Government started maintaining it but not like other residential areas.
"It's never been properly built as a road," Cathers said. "It doesn't have a proper road bed. It doesn't have proper ditches … Whenever there's a heavy rainfall, or in the spring when the snow melts the road, multiple times a year the surface just falls apart."
Minister 'committed' to improving road
Cathers said during the latest sitting of the legislative assembly the minister of highways and public works said the government is committed to improving the road. He said the Yukon government says they've done preliminary design work and plan to bring it to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board later this year.
"But the bad news is they haven't yet confirmed when work will occur on that and haven't officially added the Takhini River Road project to the five year capital plan," he said.
Cathers said the road needs to be held to the same standard to any roads in residential subdivisions in Whitehorse. He said it's not just to save people's tires, but it could save people's lives in the event of a serious emergency.
"There are two times that I'm aware of last winter where on one steep hill a heavy vehicle slipped sideways and blocked the road," he said. "It would have both times created a situation where a fire truck or ambulance would like not have been able to get past that vehicle"
