Whitehorse Daily Star

Third-world shovels won’t fix the highway

Ed. note: this is a letter to Jim Regimbal, the Yukon government’s northern area highways superintendent.

By Whitehorse Star on July 28, 2023

Ed. note: this is a letter to Jim Regimbal, the Yukon government’s northern area highways superintendent.

It is now nearly three weeks since you gave your radio interview in which you stated something like “my crews will be out right away and will work as long as needed to fix things up.”

I have made seven trips to Dawson City since then. Although there are some improvements in the North Klondike Highway, it still remains in horrible condition – particularly the area from McCabe Creek onwards.

I have seen one man with one shovel one time patch-
ing holes.

Surprisingly, on Tuesday, I saw several people with a few shovels doing some patching.

This was in the morning, but when I returned in the early afternoon, they had disappeared.

It also appears they are playing “whack-a-mole” with the potholes. One gets filled and two get missed, two get filled and one gets missed.

There are a few areas where equipment is actually being used, and these appear to be long-term fixes – the way all the bad spots should be done.

Some areas are repaired (temporarily), but are pounded out in a couple of days.

These areas need to be dug out and the underlying cause found and then repaired. Some of these bad areas have been this way for several years.

Also why is there a big hump on the Clear Creek bridge eastern (northern) approach? I thought this bridge 
was repaired!

To call this trail a highway is an insult to those who actually do maintain highways.

You should set up a booth in Whitehorse and in Dawson and give everyone who travels this trail $100 just for compensation for having to put up with the road conditions.

Please take a road trip down the Alaska Highway in the B.C. section to see how the roads there are patched.

This government needs to invest in some equipment which can do the job right.

Third-world places are still using shovels. It’s about time YTG entered the modern day.

A p---ed off road user,

Dave Avoledo

Whitehorse

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