After providing a report to council on maintenance of roads leading to the river, the Leisure Services department has been told to bring back another one maintaining those roads “to a reasonable standard”.
The roads in question are Radley Park, Giant Spruce, Cablecar Dike, Cablecar back road and Lower Dike road.
Leisure Services director Martin Gould said council indicated maintenance included filling in potholes and clearing brush on both sides of the road.
Gould noted that the road leading to the Giant Spruce is tackled a couple of times a year and the stretch from there to the river every couple of years.
“It’s pretty good”, he said of the road, adding, “You’re not going to drive down there at 60kmh but if you are driving at 20kmh you’re not going to hit too many bumps.”
That said, the wet weather being experienced at the time of the interview had resulted in some small pot holes re-emerging even though the road had been graded just two weeks earlier.
“Ultimately, it comes down to what is considered a reasonable standard,” Gould added.
Turning to the Cablecar dike road, Gould said that road had essentially been abandoned by the city because there was no longer a water intake at Cablecar.
(The subdivision used to get its water from the Kitimat but when the river moved away from the intake it was connected to the municipal water system.)
However, he said, driftboaters had “adopted” the road as an access point and they were now asking the city to maintain it.
“Maybe we should look at it if we’re really attracting fishermen to the area”, Gould added.
The road to the Lower Dike is more complicated because it runs through properties not owned by the city.
Right now that road is maintained as a utility corridor — it passes by the sewage treatment and ends at the Pacific Northern Gas right of way.
Once it comes off the dike, the road passes through land owned by Rio Tinto Alcan, Cenovus (originally Methanex) and West Fraser.
Gould said the question with that stretch was “does the property owner really want us to do that?”
Another, bigger problem is that if the road is upgraded federal Fisheries would require bridges up to 200 year flood standard to be built over a couple of small water courses which anglers just drive through now.