This is a plea for help!
I live east of Blackfalds. I travel Secondary Hwy 597 everyday to and from work; I have done this for the last six years.
This is a very busy road; a lot of traffic (heavy truck) going to and from the Nova and Dow plants, as well as local residents and farmers.
Six to eight km east from the intersection of Hwys 2A and 597, there is a spot where the road is washing into the river valley. The province solved this problem for about five years by adding more and more asphalt (every six months)/
Finally, after a ton of complaints by locals, we were told it was being fixed!
YAY!
Well, what was done was the 10-metre (or so) of asphalt was removed, on and off ramps were added to this hole and 30 km/h signs were added!
With every rainfall, this hole gets worse — I can only do 10 km/h with my car.
The other night on my way home from work, I was in the middle of this hole as a B-train doing at least 110 km/h hit the hole, throwing his trailer all over the road. I was peppered with rocks and driven into the guard rail (which by the way is way too low and is more of a safety hazard than a help).
We need help out here before someone dies! I was very lucky; I’m not sure that a new driver would have been so lucky.
I have spoken with the province on quite a few occasions and I am always told the same thing: It has had engineers out to look at it and it is being fixed.
Nothing is happening other than vehicles being wrecked and soon I’m sure someone is going to be hurt!
Susan McCutcheon
Blackfalds area