Cariboo residents experiencing road closures due to washouts and landslides fear being stranded

Hixon resident Carolyn Dobbs-Sutherland drives 60 kilometres every day south to Quesnel,in the Caribooregion ofB.C.'s central Interior, via the Quesnel-Hixon Road.

But, she says, she can't anymore because a part of the roadlocated four kilometres from her house was washed out by high water last weekend.

"You could actually see the physical difference to the road disposition and the cracks," she said Tuesday on Daybreak North about what she observed before it was closed.

"When you're driving over and you glimpse down, you [would] see water moving underneath the road through a crack."

Road made inaccessible by washouts and landslides have becomea recurring theme every spring in the Cariboo, but Dobbs-Sutherland who has lived in the region for four decades says she feels over the past four years the problem has been rapidly getting worse,due to alack of provincialoversight.

"Roads can only be neglected for so long until they finally just deteriorate to the point where you can't drive on them anymore," she said.

On April 30, Emcon, which maintains several B.C. highways and roads,reported the section of the Quesnel-Hixon Road near the Cottonwood River was completely closed due to damage from a washout.

It's still being repaired.

Since last week, Emconhas also reported damage on Highway 97 and other roads near Quesnel caused by landslides and high water.

Now,Dobbs-Sutherland says, she has to detour north to Olson Road in order to access Highway 97 and drive to Quesnel, which, she says,is poorly maintained.

"It [Olson Road] was paved, but there's not a lot of pavement left on it," she said. "It requires regular maintenance, if you're going to have that type of heavy vehicle and that amount of vehicle traffic over it."

B.C. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming, who assumed his post in November, said the province doesn't lack resources for road maintenance, but it needs a long-term plan to permanently fix the geotechnical challenges on Cariboo roads.

"We need to proactively look at the permanent changes to the hydrology in the area and how we build more resilient infrastructure in the Cariboo, so that we can withstand a changing climate and the impact it has on our infrastructure," Fleming said Wednesday on Daybreak North.

Fleming also said the province is paying close attention to what's happening in areas near the Cottonwood River.

"We're monitoring that and we're putting information out to people that live in the area, [notifying them] of any changes that happen withroad closures and conditions," he said.

But B.C. Liberal Cariboo North MLA Coralee Oakes said people living in the region are tired of hearing the province sayit's monitoring the situation, instead of doing something about it.

"It takes years and years to get those roads fixed, and people's lives have been dramatically impacted," Oakes said Monday on CBC'sDaybreak North. "We can't get ambulances on some of these detour roads what happens if there's an issue? Will they say they'll bring a helicopter in? Well, but it's weather-dependent."

Oakes also said if the Cariboo were B.C.'s Lower Mainland, the province would have taken more actions to address the road infrastructure issues.

"It's not about pointing fingers, it's not about pointing blame," she continued. "We've got to start looking differently at what we're doing on the ground."

Tap the link below to hear Coralee Oakes's interview on Daybreak North:

Tap the link below to hear Rob Fleming's interview on Daybreak North: