Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson ( Mar 03/00) - The bumpy, rutted ride from Wrigley to Fort Good Hope should now be considerably smoother, according to Gurdev Jagpal.

Unseasonably warm weather combined with heavy trucks resulted in the messy conditions, said Jagpal, Inuvik regional superintendent of the Department of Transportation.

As a result, two water trucks, a bulldozer, and a grader spent seven days fixing a 100-kilometre stretch north of the Celine River last week, he said.

"We took timely action with the repairs," he said. "If we spent extra it doesn't matter, safety comes first."

Christina Holman, of Fort Simpson, experienced the awful condition of the road while travelling north three weeks ago.

"It was terrible. There were places you couldn't go faster than 20 (km/h) ... it was hazardous," she recalled, adding that the warning signs should be more visible.

"A lot of the people that travel that road said that the big trucks shouldn't have been allowed to travel on it that early. They should have waited at least 10 days after the road opened for the ground to freeze.

The tankers and tractor trailers transporting fuel, food and other freight north, along with trucks loaded with drilling rigs, are all weighed at the scales in Enterprise, Jagpal noted. Even though they have been in accordance with weight restrictions, unexpected warm spells caused the road to get soft, he explained, and the Department of Transportation can't reduce the weight restriction fast enough.

"The weather comes suddenly," he said. "It's hard for (the truckers) to go back, or for us to go check."

Jagpal admitted that he had received numerous complaints about the winter road last week, but he said they have since died down.

"Now everybody's happy, all truckers are happy," he said. "They're surprised how fast it can be repaired."

Holman's not convinced things have improved vastly on the winter road. Her aunt drove from Tulita to Fort Simpson on Monday, she said.

"And she said the road was really bad," Holman recounted. "She said it was a little better than it was previously, but not much better."

The winter road, which opened on Feb. 3, is scheduled to close at midnight on March 15.