Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
A truck driver has expressed his ongoing concerns with the 658 primary grid road from Highway 7 north to the border separating Kindersley and Winslow.
The complaint focuses on the portion of 658 north of Highway 7 in the RM of Kindersley. There are similar concerns with the 657 primary grid road north of Highway 7. Both of the roads are in rough shape and the concern draws attention to the challenges of road maintenance.
A photo of the 658 primary grid in early March shows the rough and icy road surface that residents and truckers were dealing with at the time.
Wayne Whitney, who operates a small oil hauling business in the area, has worked as a truck driver in west central Saskatchewan for several years. Whitney spoke during an interview in early March and the interview took place in his pick up truck while travelling north on 658 a few days after a snow storm.
He referred to Highway 658 as “the Devil’s road” and he said the RM of Kindersley has done very little to maintain the busy heavy haul road while other municipalities in the area have been busy maintaining their roads all winter.
The longtime truck driver said the condition of the road is horrifying and even his pick up wanted to slide towards the ditch due to the snow and ice on the road, but also due to the large crown in the centre of the road. Whitney charged that the road was not built properly in the first place.
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“We’re down to the bedrock,” he said, pointing to several large rocks protruding through the top of the road that he says should not be visible on the surface. “There’s nothing on top. It’s all stone and clay. There’s nothing here at all.”
According to Whitney, the RM of Kindersley uses a larger gravel on the 658 in the summer and the gravel just gets pushed to the side of the road. He said the road cannot be graded, so the graders just push gravel from the side of the road back onto the road to fill the holes.
He noted that he was driving as slowly as 20 km/h and if he drove much faster, he would be shaken to the core. Whitney has said in the past that semis could barely drive 40 km/h on the 658 and after pulling over for a closer inspection of crevasses in the road, an oil hauler passed him on the 658 and the trucker did not travel faster than 40 km/h until he reached the RM of Winslow where the road improved.
The trucker said he believes 90 per cent of the oil haulers using the road are respectful to other motorists and truckers. He said it takes longer than it should to bring a load of oil north from Highway 7 and oil haulers are paid by the volume and not by the hour, so they lose money the longer it takes to reach destinations.
“We’ve got loads to haul and you’ve got to worry about your springs breaking,” Whitney said, recognizing that truckers risk doing damage to their rigs every time they get on 658. “You got to worry about something breaking in the truck or the trailer.”
Whitney said he has fought and lobbied for road improvements before and he was part of an effort several years ago to repair Highway 31 between Denzil to Macklin. He said he was asked why he fights for road improvements when it might not be popular to do, and he told the person someone has to do it.
He claimed that he could risk backlash from municipalities and they might refuse to sell him permits to operate. However, he said he believes the road is dangerous to motorists and he has decided to share his concerns.
The trucker said his main complaint is with the 658 because the section of the road in the RM of Kindersley is the single worst haul road he uses on a regular basis. He said there are other haul roads in better shape in the RM of Kindersley including the 658 going south of Highway 7.
Councillor Gord Wilson of the RM of Kindersley, who sits on the municipality’s public works committee, said 658 is the busiest road in the area for oil traffic and even the ministry of highways and infrastructure has recognized the traffic.
He noted that the province is planning passing lanes on Highway 7 between Rosetown and the Alberta border, and turning lanes at 658 are a priority due to the amount of truck traffic on the road. Wilson said the 658 is only a heavy haul road for a mile and a half in the RM of Winslow before it turns east and is no longer a heavy haul road, so he did not believe it was in much better shape north of Kindersley.
The councillor stressed that the level of traffic on the 658 is responsible for the condition, but “it’s the busiest road in the RM of Kindersley.” He said one of the challenges is the road is used to haul oil from the RM of Snipe Lake to facilities in the RM of Winslow, so there is no direct benefit to Kindersley.
Wilson said the 658 was “totally recapped” in 2011 because the provincial government was about to shut down the road due to safety concerns. He noted that the municipality spent nearly $2 million to rebuild the road in order for it to continue to be used.
He admitted that the road is in rough shape, but the municipality had been unable to get graders on the road due to weather conditions through March. He said the extended cold snap in March and April prevented road maintenance from being done. He claimed that graders would have been down the road up to four times in March if not for the weather.
The RM of Kindersley purchased a grader that is used exclusively to maintain 10 miles of 658 and 18 miles of 657. The municipality has spent $220,000 to acquire a different variety of gravel to use as a test this maintenance season, he noted.
Wilson said the clay used to rebuild 658 in 2011 came from beside the road, but there is no more clay available to rebuild the road again. Therefore, it will cost a lot more than what the work cost in 2011 because clay would have to be purchased and hauled for the project. In terms of Whitney’s claim that the 658 is not built properly, the RM of Kindersley hired an engineer to design the busy road.
He claimed that 80 per cent of the traffic on the 658 is from oil haulers coming from Snipe Lake. Wilson said Kindersley has the lowest tax structure of municipalities in the area, so oil activity in Kindersley has remained steady as a result.
Wilson also mentioned that Kindersley did not solicit any companies to build facilities along the 658. He said municipal officials are looking for solutions to improve roads, and both the 658 and 657 north of Highway 7 are going to get much needed attention through the season.
“There’s no question that the 658 and the 657 are definitely the priority,” he said, recognizing that the relationship with truckers is a two-way street and the oil haulers have to do their part to be good stewards of grid roads.
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