State of disrepair

Four Cape Breton roads make Atlantic Canada's top 10 worst list

FOURCHU — It appears some of Cape Breton's lesstravelled roads are that way for a reason.

They are roads in disrepair. In fact, four of the scenic island's roads made the Canadian Automobile Association's 2022 list of the 10 worst roads in Atlantic Canada. Three of those roads are located in the thinly-populated Municipality of Richmond County, while the fourth is in the Municipality of Victoria County.

The top two spots on the list go to Newfoundland and Labrador highways. The worst road is Highway 410 which leads north to the Baie Verte peninsula, while second place is held by the Bay d'Espoir Highway that connects to Harbour Breton on Newfoundland's south coast.

The first Cape Breton road to appear on the list is in third place and is cited as the Fleurde-lis Trail, which in actuality is a stretch of the St. PetersFourchu Road near Grand River. That road, incidentally, starts or ends in Lower L'Ardoise and not St. Peter's as one might expect.

Fourth place on the worst roads list was awarded to the Loch Lomond Road that is in Richmond County, while another section of the St. Peters-Fourchu Road, near the community of St. Esprit, came in at No. 6. The final Cape Breton road on the notso-envious list is West Side Middle River Road in Victoria County.

But having four of the worst roads in Atlantic Canada isn't exactly a great honour.

RICHMOND COUNTY ROADS

Jeanette Strachan was raised in Framboise, a small community located on the St. Peters-Fourchu Road southwest of Gabarus. She still maintains a residence in the area.

The 64-year-old remembers the road before it fell into disrepair and is now appalled by its deterioration. But she forewords her words with an acknowledgement that potholes and poor roads can be found all across the region. Then she tells it like it was and, in many cases, still is on the Fleur-de-Lis Trail, a coastal road that runs 187 km between Port Hawkesbury and Louisbourg.

“It was so bad — there were potholes so bad that cars were getting smashed up and damaged and people were getting stranded out on the road miles from anyone,” said Strachan, who serves as meeting coordinator with the Fleurde-Lis/St. Peters-Fourchu Road Project.

“In fact, during the early COVID time, there was a knock on the door one day from a young fellow who had been hiking in Gabarus before he wrecked his car in a pothole. He needed some help and he walked miles to find us. He had a cell phone but there is no cell service out that way. We don't want this happening on our roads. We don't want this happening on any roads.”

Strachan admits that the worst of the worst potholes have been repaired. But she maintains that plenty of more work is needed on the road.

“There is still a 20 km stretch that is really rough,” she said.

“The middle of the road is missing in some places, the sides of the road is missing in other places and it's just become really difficult to drive. It's not like there's a pothole here and a pothole there. It's constant. Nobody wants to drive this road anymore.”

DOWN THE ROAD

Strachan acknowledges that the province has recognized the need for repairs to the St. Peters-Fourchu Road. She cites an April 2021 assurance by then-Nova Scotia Transportation Minister Lloyd Hines that it was the province's commitment to pave 7.5 km of the road in 2022 with the intent of eventually repairing the entire route over the course of a multiyear period.

However, Strachan, who as an amateur historian has researched the history of the nearby Stirling Mine that produced zinc, lead and copper until its close in the mid-1950s, said she has heard rumblings that the entire length of the promised 7.5km stretch due to be paved might not be completed this summer.

“I just feel that we are being neglected, but we're still hoping something happens,” she said.

“We don't want people travelling on that road and getting stranded.”

“Nobody wants to drive this road anymore.”

Jeanette Strachan, about the St. PetersFourchu Road