Yellowhead County is calling on the provincial government to fix large potholes spotted along Highway 16.
“The highway is getting so bad people are really getting concerned right now. It’s to the point where it needs to be corrected,” said Jim Eglinski, the county’s mayor.
The potholes can be seen on Highway 16 from Edson to Edmonton, according to the county’s mayor.
The county has paid specific attention recently to some potholes along the highway near Wildwood, Alta., approximately 120 kilometres east of Edmonton.
Some of the potholes are a few metres long, 30 centimetres deep and are getting bigger, Eglinski said.
“It’s to the point where it is dangerous at times,” he said.
“So if you’re not paying attention [and] the road’s a little icy, you hit one of them, they could throw the vehicle and you could lose control very easily.”
Damaged vehicles
The mayor has been receiving calls from residents who claim their vehicles were damaged from the potholes.
He said the county doesn’t have a system to track these complaints because they’re directed to the province, but he believes they’ve received approximately 20 calls during the last few weeks.
Leif Peterson, a resident of Stony Plain, said he encountered a pothole on Yellowhead Highway last March that was around six metres long.
“It damaged the rims completely, caved in one portion of both of them in exactly the same place … and my airbag deployed on my little smart car,” Peterson said.
Peterson said he submitted a claim to Alberta Transportation, but received no compensation.
“I thought I did everything right, and a few months later, after I turned it in, they got back to me and said ‘No, you don’t qualify.'”
County council wrote a letter to Alberta’s transportation minister last week, asking the ministry to fix the pothole problem.
As of Thursday evening, the county had not received a response.
In an emailed statement to CBC News on Thursday, Brooklyn Elhard, press secretary for the province’s transportation minister, said the department is aware of the issue.
“Crews are currently out near Wildwood performing hand-patching repairs to address these issues. Crews will move on to address other priority areas on Highway 16 next week, pending weather,” Elhard wrote.
The province did not answer why the potholes haven’t been fixed in a timely manner, or what the public should do if they’ve injured themselves or have vehicle damage from the potholes.
The ministry also did not release the number of damage claims it received from the public in the Edson area.