Yellowknife (July 19/06) - Frustrated with the slow pace in widening parts of Old Airport Road, Donnie Robinson of RTL Robinson Enterprises has offered the city a loan to get the job done.

Until the work is complete double-trailer trucks are not allowed to access Yk streets.

"I'm not sure why there is no resolution to this," he told the city's Priorities, Policies and Budget Committee Monday morning.

"If the (city's) budget is the problem, I have no problem financing the work until next year."

Known as rocky mountain doubles, the trucks haul two trailers ­ the first 45 feet long and the second a 25-footer. While these rigs are popular in western Canada, they are banned from entering the city.

"Such a configured vehicle cannot negotiate the curve coming from Highway 3 and onto Old Airport Road without going off the paved surface or crossing the centre line," reads a July 12 letter from the city and Department of Transportation to Grimshaw Trucking, Northwest Transportation, Tlicho Landtran and RTL Enterprises.

Leaving the second trailer on each double 40 km from the city and making a second trip to collect it is wasting about $2,000 worth of fuel a day for the industry on the whole, Robinson said.

"We've been eating these costs and if we don't get (this road upgrade) soon we'll have to do something with our rates," he said after the meeting.

Mayor Gordon Van Tighem supports modifying the intersection, but isn't sure how the city will pay for it. The cost estimates of doing the work range from the city's $100,000, which the mayor calls a, "Class D estimate at best," to Robinson's $15,000 figure.

"This is not a $100,000 job," said Robinson.