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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
With a small amount of money in the city budget going to road rehabilitation this year, some Kam Lake business people feel they are being neglected.

Eric Sputek: Deh Cho Boulevard is a hot topic for property owners. - NNSL file photo

The city has identified Deh Cho Boulevard as being in the worst condition in Yellowknife, and the Kam Lake Property Association is applying pressure to city hall to address it.

"That particular road has been a hot topic between Kam Lake property owners and the city and from what we understand there is a game plan to update that road," said Eric Sputek.

"We haven't heard a lot about it lately, but we expect the city to hold true to those comments that something will happen there."

Created across swamp and containing no base reconstruction, Deh Cho Boulevard has been the site of growing commercial activity since being completed as a bypass road to Kam Lake in 1999.

A complete reconstruction of Deh Cho Boulevard from where the bypass road begins to Kam Lake Road - 1.3 km - is proposed for next year. At this point, the project is expected to cost $1.3 million, according to the 2012 capital project plans.

According to the city, that road "will require large excavations and reconstruction of the road base as well as stabilization methods to ensure that the heavy truck traffic can be supported by the road base."

It is yet to be confirmed whether construction will take place next year. The details of the project will be finalized during December's budget deliberations.

The city has $700,000 budgeted for road rehabilitation this year, $600,000 of that is earmarked for Ndilo.

Yvan Brien, owner of YB Services, has lived in town for about 40 years.

He said the treatment of Deh Cho Boulevard, or the lack thereof, has affected his business and trailer home, where the road meets Etthen Drive.

"They put calcium down in the spring to keep the dust down, but it is not enough and I think the city needs to do another application," Brien said.

What results is dust that finds its way into his house and into the garage where he works. Part of this has to do with people travelling too fast and kicking up dirt, he said.

Other area streets are considered almost as bad, however.

"If you want some real fun, take a ride on Coronation Drive," Mayor Gord Van Tighem said last week. "My little car was coming up like an airplane."

One businessperson in the area, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the road is badly in need of repair and that other areas of the city have received too much investment in comparison.

"I feel the city has put too much into greenery to make things look pretty in other areas (such as Old Airport Road) and the infrastructure here falls just apart," he said.

He added that with Coronation Drive and Grace Lake subdivisions undergoing development in the future, traffic will probably triple and the industrial park roads may not be prepared.

The need to widen Kam Lake Road is another common criticism.

"There is getting to be too much traffic and the city will have to make it a four-laner to the main section by the arena, in my opinion," said Ron Gibeault, owner of Ron's Auto Service and Equipment Rentals.

"They put so much money into the Old Airport Road, why didn't they put more money into this one?"

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