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Councillor waiting on road repairs

IAN NATHANSON POLITICAL REPORTER ian.nathanson@cbpost.com @CBPost_Ian

INGONISH — A Victoria County councillor is wondering how long it would take before road crews or contractors get to work on fixing Ingonish-area roads affected by last week's massive rainstorm.

Environment Canada reported close to 278 millimetres pummelled the Ingonish River area, while Ingonish Beach received around 263 mm, according to data from last Wednesday.

Victoria County Deputy Warden Larry Dauphinee said he worried about residents living along Doucette Road in Ingonish Beach who had essentially been cut off from access to the main road.

“Along that road, there are eight homes where a number of seniors live — one of (whom) is 93 and not in the best of health,” Dauphinee told council. “On Thursday, I had to make the decision to ask a contractor to put gravel on the road, just to make it passable for them to get through.”

APPRECIATE THE WORK, BUT ...

“I understand there are priorities: there's a main road that's cutting people off. And I wish I could be as appreciative of all the work that's going on in the county. But as of today (Tuesday), we've been one week in and we have seen nobody in Ingonish. Nobody. I'm kind of at a loss here.”

Dauphinee told the Cape Breton Post that to date, that's the only road repair completed in the Ingonish area.

“We did realize that nearly every contractor in the county was working elsewhere, like in Neils Harbour or Tarbotvale,” he said Tuesday. “But we had two local contractors here sitting around and they never received one phone call.

“We've been talking to everybody trying to get a reason why these two contractors (in our area) hadn't been called out to help.”

Dauphinee also noted a major washout along the side of the road in Ingonish

Harbour, near Ski Cape Smokey. “A household across from that (culvert) has no access to their driveway,” he said.

“It just seemed we were completely overlooked. Yes, again I understand the priorities, but down where I am I have a road with limited access, another family near Ski Cape Smokey is still without access. And yet I'm seeing shoulders along the Cabot Trail done but with no houses along that portion.”

LESS A PRIORITY

Mark Peachey, acting chief engineer with the province's Department of Public Works, said while “there were a number of washouts, with (road) shoulder damage and such in the Ingonish area, there

are no road closures or, to my understanding, anybody trapped or isolated, or any bridges lost.”

Roadways along New Haven/Neils Harbour area were heavily destroyed in last Tuesday's rainstorm, while residents of the Tarbotvale area lost a major bridge access to the Cabot Trail, Peachey said.

“What we've been doing is focusing where the roads have been washed out, up around White Point, Neils Harbour/New Haven,” he said. “For the Tarbotvale area, we had to build a temporary road to access some folks who were trapped. When the rains took the bridge out, it realigned the road to where the river is located.“

That leaves other roadways, including ones in the Ingonish area, as less of a priority to handle at the moment, Peachey said.

“Now all that said,” he added, “I've been told that there were people sent (Tuesday) morning to start

assessing the Ingonish area and getting on it as soon as possible.”

Still, said Robie Gourd, project manager at Parks Canada, opening the main portion of the Cabot Trail between Ingonish and Neils Harbour must come first.

“That's the high priority — to reconnect the communities of Neils Harbour and Ingonish,” he said. “What we're using now is a time frame — a matter of one to two weeks (to start). It'd be too soon to open this weekend, but we're hoping it would be next week.”

That may be of little comfort to Ingonish Harbour resident Allan Dauphinee, who is concerned that any motorist travelling along washed-out portions near his home might damage their vehicles should they accidentally veer off the main road.

“Any wheel of your car that drops into the shoulder,” he said, “you're automatically going to roll over.”

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2021-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

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