Scheduled road maintenance in Rocky View County (RVC) is progressing despite delays due to the flooding of the Bow River last June.
“It pushed maintenance back three or four weeks,” said Steve Hulsman, maintenance supervisor for RVC. “We’d rather start chipping in July or even June.”
Staff from the County saw much of their time in those typical maintenance months tied up focused on tree removal and fixing washed out culverts.
Despite the delays, maintenance is mostly on schedule across the county.
Hulsman and RVC capital projects technologist Gord Rowland said Blue Ridge Rise, which is located southwest of Highway 1A, would begin maintenance paving on Aug. 23.
Range Road 283 from Township Road 240 to 232 will see shoulder repair and asphalt paving of the existing chip seal surface.
“The north piece of 283 is completed,” said Rowland. “They’re working on the south right now and it should be done within a couple of weeks.”
Range Road 284, southeast of Calgary, was closed on Aug. 26 and 27 as CP Rail did maintenance work on railroad crossings.
The floods damaged multiple roads leading to their closure. Highway 22 to Bragg Creek through Highway 758 remains closed, and business owners are feeling the impact.
“(It’s affected us) quite a bit – there’s no through traffic,” said Josef Wiewer, owner of the Bavarian Inn in Bragg Creek. “(The closure) has discouraged people from driving down. It has definitely affected business.”
Reopening Highway 22 to Highway 758 will be the responsibility of the Alberta government. Roads around the town were cleaned and graveled for accessibility immediately followed the flood by the county, and officials said further work would be completed in October.
“We simply graveled it earlier,” said Rowland. “Once everyone’s done cleaning, we’ll go back and finish the rest.”
Roads that will see maintenance in the fall include Township Road 244 and Township Road 282 near crossfield. Township Road 262 northeast of Calgary was completed on Aug. 23.
