Vanderhoof Contractors say Road Bans Bad for Business

Thursday, January 29, 2009 11:00 AM

Vanderhoof, B.C. - The District of Vanderhoof says it will look into concerns over road restrictions after a presentation by concerned contractors and construction representatives at Wednesday night's council meeting.

Richard Borek says road bans in the district mean that builder/contractors like himself have to wait until the middle of summer to get started on projects. Borek says he can't move concrete or machinery to job sites in the spring, which means workers often end up doing framing or other work in the middle of winter.

"Our request to council has been to lift them (the bans) or move them from 50% to at least 70% so we can proceed with construction without having to wait until the middle of summer really."

Borek says many community members end up breaking the road bans, going about business as though they don't exist.

This isn't the first time that the road bans issue has been brought up at council. Borek and others raised concerns about the road restrictions to members in March, 2007.

Vanderhoof Council members have agreed to examine the issue to see what can be done.

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Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 11:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lostfaith on January 29 2009 12:11 PM

Sure lift them or modify them and at the same time increase those business's taxes to pay for the damages they will create to "OUR" roads while they are making profits.

Giver!

Posted by: gus on January 29 2009 1:20 PM

Most civil works are designed for year around use, which has to give consideration to annual climate conditions. Buildings are also designed for extreme conditions of snow, wind, even some level of earthquake resistance, as well as accessibility for those with some disabilities which is generally a minority of the population.

Such "readiness" to take extreme or extraordinary use of built facilities is commonplace. It adds to the cost of everything we build for both convenience and safety sake.

So what makes roads any different? Why should roads be built to a standard which is not compatible with reasonable use? Why is it unreasonable to expect logging, dirt hauling and other potential year round activities to be dictated by the weather simply because of which roads they have to travel and what normal business they have to carry on?

Basically we are saying that roads are not designed for the purpose for which they are intended. Their design is defective!

Posted by: lostfaith on January 29 2009 2:36 PM

Ever driven down a gravel/bush road or rural paved one in the spring Gus?

Very soft and unable to withstand heavy truck traffic unless perhaps there are weight restrictions put in place to prevent them from being completely destroyed.

They were designed to do a particular job under particular conditions and they serve their purpose.

Their design is cheap not defective. If they were defective we would beable to file a warranty claim. ;-)

Posted by: He speaks on January 29 2009 3:29 PM

It would be nice if the roads could handle 100% of the load year round, Unfortunately we live in the part of the country where we go through a freeze thaw cycle. As it thaws in the spring, the water in the soil has no place to drain to yet. Thus it reduces the cohesion between the materials and excessive loads or vibration liquifies the substrate, and ploof, your axle deep in the mud.

Thus we put weight restriction to minimize the load per sf of contact area. Contractors can get around this problem, Move the concrete on vehicles with more axles. Thus this increases the sf contact area. Of course this cost money, But if the customer is willing to pay for the concrete at the new rates, why not.

Posted by: beesknees on January 30 2009 5:34 AM

Its only the local roads which have the bans. Provincial highways and major corridors don't have the load bans. Its easy to build roads to withstand any amount of weight, or differing weather conditions, but people whine about high taxes. So the people who we vote for to govern us got tired of all the whining, and decided it was easier to build cheaper roads (for the diminished taxes collected), and impose load bans.

Then they only have to listen to some rich people whine (ie: contractors, builders, heavy delivery services), but we all know that they get little sympathy from the rest of us riffraff, so the politician was safe in making that choice, and remained popular.

Talk about cutting off our nose to spite our face.