Councillor wary of icy intersections
Dan Wong wants city to use grader to remove ice ridges
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Friday, February 27, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Councillor Dan Wong is worried about the suspension on his vehicle and he wants the city to take action.
Wong asked director of public works Chris Greencorn if something can be done about ice ridges which are forming at various intersections around the city at the end of Monday night's council meeting.
"Say you go to a grocery store ... and you're coming out of the grocery store by (Stanton Territorial Hospital), and you're turning left to go back downtown, and you get to the bottom of the hill ... you get the advanced green to turn left and you hit those ice ridges on the intersection ... bang, bang, bang," said Wong. "It's a pretty rough ride ... in the middle of winter. We all know this, we all drive around on them."
Wong said he was approached by a resident who has a solution to the problem.
"He said 'Why don't you just run a grader regularly in the months when those ridges get bad - across some of the major intersections around town," he said. "Not all of them, just a few. Maybe do it at night. I thought maybe that (could) make sense."
Wong said the ridges aren't so bad when you drive parallel to them, but if you try to drive across them at speed you could do serious damage to the suspension on your vehicle.
"Is this something staff thinks can be done?" he asked.
Greencorn said the department already does grade the streets.
"It's not done on a regular basis but kind of on an as-needed basis," he said. "The guys inspect the roads ... for an example I've noticed the same lines on the Coldwell Banker (Franklin Avenue)-48th Street intersection. The guys actually had it cleaned up the next night."
Greencorn said if residents spot problem intersections they can forward their complaints to the department.
"The guys should be monitoring it a little more closely so I'll be sure they'll be a little more aware," he said.
Coun. Niels Konge said when he was driving around earlier in the day he noticed how well the department has battled the elements this season.
"We still probably have another six or seven weeks to go," said Konge. "But I haven't received a single complaint of that yet this year, so good job."
