River Road Becomes Muddy Mess

Thursday, February 28, 2008 04:06 AM

Muddy River Road sees trucks pass by each other without getting too close to the soft shoulder marks

Prince George, B.C. – The predictions made when River Road was elevated to create a dike from the Nechako River flooding, have come true.

The on an off ramps have become mud bogs.

(at right, fork lift wheels are stuck in mud)

John Brink of Brink Forest Products says things will get worse before they get better “The frost isn’t all the way out of the road, and my equipment is getting stuck” says Brink. He says he may have to move some operations to another site because the soft gravel ramps up and over the road are making it impossible for him to move product.

“Everything we said would happen is happening” says Brink “the gravel is acting like marbles because it’s sitting on old pavement. There is a packer and a grader working on this road every day, but as more frost lifts, the worse it gets.”

Brink says he is concerned that it won’t be too long before the heavy B-trains refuse to drive on the road or the ramps.

At Brink’s operations, he figures productivity is down 20- 25% as some work is delayed in order to pull equipment out of the soft gravel. Brink is also concerned about drainage. According to him, the north part of his plant will suffer from flooding again this year, but not because of the Nechako "We have become the drainage ditch for the run off from the Carney Street overpass"

(at right water is pooling as Brink says drainage system has been rendered useless)

Brink says the $300 thousand dollars his company spent on drainage upgrades a few years back is now money that has gone down the drain as the upgrades were not designed with an elevated road in the middle of the property.

The person in charge of the flood recovery effort is Tom Madden. He says the City has a responsibility to maintain the road and to ensure it is safe. “It was built during bad weather times, and anything that needs to be done will be done”.

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Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 04:06 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: opion1 on February 28 2008 5:27 AM

I wounder if the road really needed to be raised in the first place? Did it lessen the potential for damage or was it a knee jerk reaction that will cause the tax payers even more wasted money.

Posted by: Hindsight on February 28 2008 6:59 AM

Just great...looks like more dirt being dragged across the city causing more dust causing poorer air quality!

Posted by: Gampy on February 28 2008 7:30 AM

Well, that certainly helps explain the tax-rape we're getting!!

Posted by: Foo738 on February 28 2008 8:12 AM

Why was it raised in the first place?
You are right Hindsight, more trucks travelling through residential areas, more pollution.

Posted by: detoe43 on February 28 2008 9:15 AM

Gee what a surprise. The City of PG didn't think this one out at all. They didn't prep the road bed properly, they put the wrong kind of dirt down as a base,
there was snow & ice mixed in with the gravel that went in & didn't pack it down very well at the start. Most of all they
didn't consult residents and businesses as
to what they were doing or their true intentions. That elevated road went in so
fast no one had time to properly assess any
complications. As it turns out we now have to put up with this mess for at least 14
months, when we were originally told by our
awe inspiring Mayor that the elevated section would come out by summer at the latest.
So far the City has not properly addressed liability for accidents on the raised road. We just had a tax hike, think of what we may have to pay in the future when the lawsuits start pouring in. Oh well
at least CN's butt was covered.

Posted by: thereasonableman on February 28 2008 10:17 AM

They kept everyone out of there until they were done. It was like "checkpoint charlie" trying to get a look at what was happening.

There must have been some compelling reason why this was done, it just doesn't make any sense. There is something we are not being told, I'm sure.

Posted by: metalman on February 28 2008 10:41 AM

Gee, I guess no one could have seen this coming huh? (huh, rhymes with DUH)
muy estupido.
metalman.

Posted by: detoe43 on February 28 2008 10:46 AM

Simply put, River Road did not need to be raised. Most of PG did not know (may still
not) the extent of what the City has done.
People were kept in the dark, marginalized,
ridiculed & treated with contempt when they dared to question City & Emergency officials reasoning. I think the City does not want the general public to know the level of incompetence that pervades City Hall & Council.
There were & continue to be many viable options put forward that the City could take, but they panicked. We have egos as big as all outdoors that are unwilling to admit mistakes & won't back down. Unfortunately it is us the taxpayers that
have to deal with the fallout. I hope voters have long memories when Civic Election time rolls around this year. Kinsley & ilk need to go & some heads need to roll. Over 300 tax paying voters were
put out of work for the sole reason that River Road was raised when it did not need to.

Posted by: realitycheck on February 28 2008 11:19 AM

I imagine if the river has risen higher (which it easily could have) you'd all be singing a different song about raising the road. We were very fortunate that didn't occur and I for one am glad precautions were taken in case it did.
No solution is perfect and there is little doubt River Road will be a mess for a while but I'm prepared to deal with that for the peace of mind it provided during a very dangerous time.
To say viable options were ignored because of egos is ridiculous....do you people seriously think anyone at City Hall would make a decision which could result in the flooding of the entire downtown area on based on ego??? Do you seriously think city employees sit around all day and think of ways to screw the taxpayer??
Give your heads a shake.

Posted by: Harbinger on February 28 2008 12:25 PM

Ha ha ha. What a bunch of ninnies!!

Posted by: lostfaith on February 28 2008 2:19 PM

GOOD JOB KINSLEY

Posted by: giterdun on February 28 2008 2:23 PM

detoe43...
You nailed it.

realitycheck...
The city employees sit arou...... Ah forget it. Sounds like you work for the city.

Posted by: The_grandinquisitor on February 28 2008 2:29 PM

What was done can be undone....time for the city to start hauling away the muck.

Posted by: detoe43 on February 28 2008 4:49 PM

Realitycheck, read your user name then apply it to yourself. First, had the river risen higher the "barrier" put on River
Road would probably have been breached. Did you read what I wrote previous? The diking was poorly constructed.
Next, were you there when the river crested all 3 times? Were you at City council & info meetings when citizens concerns & ideas were treated quite trivially? Are you aware that yes some very viable alternatives were given, but ignored? Were you at the City council meeting when our Mayor promised 2 business
leaders that berm construction would halt until it could be further studied, only to have construction resume bright & early the next day? How have you been personally affected by the flood? Lose employment?
Lose your home? Please, keep posting your ill informed opinions,you're certainly
entitled. Those of us that were there will
continue to speak as to what really happened.

Posted by: owl on February 28 2008 7:30 PM

The raising of the road was done as an emergency solution. Emergency solutions are typically fraught with problems. Anyone who thought that the way the road was constructed could be a longer than winter solution needs to do a bit more research.

Perhaps Heidi could be recruited to find out who has built a successful filled road in the middle of winter on top of a paved road, especially one with various ramps on which vehicles travel with shifting centre of gravities and wheel loads due to the transitions from ramps to road.

When grades of paved roads are raised, the pavement and base are typically removed or broken up prior to raising the grade.

If roads could be constructed to good quality standards, highway construction would typically continue in freezing temperatures.

Posted by: Free Enterprise on February 28 2008 9:50 PM

Clear house at the City.

Posted by: Eagleone on February 28 2008 11:31 PM

I watched the city crews build the ramps on Pulp Mill Road for the water pipes for pumping water. It was the most ridiculous operation I have ever witnessed. It should have been a 15 minute job, but they ended up blocking all traffic to and from the industrial site for 6 hours while the gong show did its work. Some guy pulled seniority for the loader who obviously had no loader experience and would not get off the loader to allow someone with experience to operate it. A dozen city workers stood around on overtime trying to figure out what to do. After four hours a city official showed up 4am to remove the loader operator from his post, but he refused (pulled union rank) and so they let him continue. Of course they didn't think to bring a roller or a compactor to compact the ramp they built so the first chip truck was buried in a four foot high pile of dirt. It took the city loader pushing and a city loaded sand truck pulling to just barely get the first chip truck out of the sand pile. The gong show continued for another couple of hours. The sad part was that anyone with a plan (and an experience loader operator) could have done the job in 15 minutes with 2 employees and had the traffic moving again.....

I'd say they are all incompetent and the union is garbage to allow the costs incurred to industry because of union rank issues between city workers.

Posted by: Common Sense on February 29 2008 10:26 AM

The City should do a study this summer on if it is viable to move the berm to the reparian zone on the edge of the river and incorporate it into the walking trail system. This way by the time the study is done it should be December and they can try to build it in the winter again.

Posted by: unitas77 on February 29 2008 10:54 AM

REALITYCHECK - Shook my head, hard too, still think the city messed up. Shaking our heads won't change our minds. Maybe if we weren't kept in the dark and someone actually explained the reasons and logic to us, we might not be so harsh. Oh i forgot, we are just dumb rednecks who wouldnt understand, right?

Posted by: The_grandinquisitor on February 29 2008 6:49 PM

OH god, soon it won't matter much ...winton global is closing its doors and soon Brinks will shut down...its inevitable...

Posted by: gitterdun on February 29 2008 10:43 PM

yah think with all the road builders and loggers available that someone could have built a decent road........some things should be contracted out