Rocky roads

Queens County residents say roads are unsafe to drive on

Some Queens County residents say they are getting fed up with the state of the roads surrounding a major tourism hub for P.E.I.

Mike Gallant and Gilda Stephens are two Trout River Road residents upset about the state of the road, which connects

Stanley Bridge to Breadalbane and is an access point to the Cavendish area.

This week, three signs were installed on the road shaming the provincial government and Transportation Minister Paula Biggar.

“They’re promoting road safety… but they’ve got a very pathetic road here that is dangerous. There are no signs posted and no warnings,” said Gallant, who added that the road is in need of major repairs.

“They should get off their ass and start fixing some roads.”

Gallant said that previous years have seen minor repairs that don’t last.

“They just do a quick patch, it’s nothing. They’ll come here and patch the whole thing and go over it with the roller… they’re wasting taxpayers’ money,” he said.

“There are three different school buses that pass this road, in and out, that’s 12 trips daily. These roads cannot sustain traffic like that, and you know that just by looking at it.”

While Gallant said Trout River Road is one of the worst examples, he said there are other roads in the tourismheavy area in similar need of repairs.

Gallant said he previously called the transportation department this spring about his road, as well as Cavendish Road, which has a number of signs warning drivers of bumps. Crews began working on that road this week.

Area MLA Brad Trivers said he’s heard from many residents over the past several years asking for repairs to the Trout River Road, as well as for a gravel portion of the road to be paved.

However, Trivers, a PC MLA, said it’s not the only poor road in the area and pointed to others in the western Cavendish area that he said are “completely disintegrating.”

“(The province has) let the roads deteriorate. They’re not spending enough money on maintenance and after the winter we’ve had this year, we’ve seen so many roads break up because they haven’t been maintained properly,” said Trivers. “They’re literally crumbling under the weight… We need to work to improve our roads as well road maintenance in general because the budget is not big enough, and our industries and residents are paying for it.”

Trivers said that includes the area’s clay roads, some of which are nearly impassable during some points of the year.

This past winter, New Glasgow Fire Department responded to a medical call on Centre Road in Millvale that fire chief Jason Peters described as “quite treacherous.”

While Peters said they were lucky the call only required one truck, he wrote into the government with concerns at the time.

“If we had a major fire and a bunch of trucks and mutual aid, we would have had one big mess with the potential of not getting in,” said Peters.

Peters said he believes the government took some action on the road in adding crushed asphalt or shale, but he noted it’s an issue that affects other roads in the province.

“That was one particular road at the time, I’m sure if you polled the 36 fire stations across P.E.I. everybody has two or three in their area that are barely passable in certain times of the year,” he said. “We’re not talking when there’s snow, we’re talking when it’s muddy with heavy rain.”