ASK Salt Spring: Answered - Ep 34 Andrew Gaetz

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

We speak with Andrew Gaetz, operations manager for Emcom, the company that maintains roads on Salt Spring Island.

You're listening to episode 34 of Ask Salt Spring Answered, in which we speak with Andrew Gates, who is the operations manager of ENCOM, the company that maintains the roads on Salt Spring Island. All right. So we were at Ask Salt Spring this morning with Andrew Gates, who is the operations manager for ENCOM. Yeah. And you're responsible for the Southern Gulf Islands and South Vancouver Island.

Correct. Yes. Okay. And there was good news and bad news, I guess. Probably more, not exactly bad news, but certainly people had concerns about various stretches of road, which I guess is something you're probably quite used to. But we started off talking about the road sweeping in Ganges, and that was kind of a positive story. Yeah. You managed to get that done without too much difficulty I gather. I think an improvement in the years that we've been in the contract here

yeah. And this is a special piece of equipment that comes from Vancouver Island right? Correct a newly purchased one that we got last year. All right okay and I think you said that there's going to be one more sweep before the schools come out is that right? That's my goal yes. Yeah okay all right now one of the things you said and I think you know we all sympathize is before the schools come out, is that right? That's my goal, yes. Yeah, okay. All right. Now, one of the things you said that I think we all sympathize is you said there's a problem with how much inventory there is for you guys to deal with that needs fixing, I guess, and you know that you can't do it, right? Correct.

There is quite a vast network of roads, culverts, everything that's involved in an inventory for us. And maintenance budget is stretched very thin across all of that. Right. And that includes patching potholes and patching bits of road that have, you know, broken apart or whatever. And what else you you do um snow not snow clearing yep we do all of the snow clearing salting sanding in the winter time we do sweeping we do mowing we do brushing we remove dangerous trees uh we do dust control on gravel roads we grade those gravel roads and add gravel when needed to those

gravel roads. It's a vast majority of things that we take care of. Yeah. Now, one road that came up was St. Mary's Lake Road, the North End Road, I guess. There's some subsidence there, apparently, which people were concerned with. And I think you said that if it got bad enough, it would get emergency funding. Is that correct? I think what we talked about was sort of in an emergency situation where the road was to fall in, that there is emergency pots of funding that the ministry are able to pull from.

I think I was a parent in 2021 when we had all of those flood events. Right. So it was the Belleau Point Road and all that stuff. Exactly. Fulford Ganges Road, which is, you know, I'm looking at a lot of the larger fixes this year now. So there is more emergency funding than there is maintenance funding in some times. Right. Now, it's interesting to hear you say that you felt that Fulford-Ganges Road is in a terrible state, I think you said, and that you would have made it a priority to fix the road rather than do Ganges Hill. Was that, am I correct on that? Yeah. I mean, a lot of the funding that's going into the Fulford-Ganges Hill is for cyclists and widening.

And while I think that that's great, I think that there's also a lot of work that needs to be done on Fulford-Ganges Road itself out to Fulford Harbor. The pavement is in serious need of rehabilitation and resurfacing and funding for that needs to be considered as well. Right. But that's probably not going to happen in the next little while, by the sound of it, because so much money is being spent. I can't speak for what the government's decisions are. I only represent a company that works for the government. Right, yeah, sure. I think you were asked about the Blackburn Lake Bridge,

and you said it's actually not going to be a bridge as such. It's more of an arch. How is that going to work exactly? Do you know? So it's a more modern construction approach. So an arch that would allow for very similar, like a bridge, where natural kind of stream bed and aggregate can be left undisturbed through the pipe, allows water to flow through, and then geosynthetic reinforcing materials to kind of reinforce the road base around the arch. Okay. reinforcing materials to kind of reinforce the road base around the arch okay so that's supposed to happen sometime this summer apparently goes well yeah yeah there's still all the other things to happen the time I will

say projects like that one as well as the Fulford Ganges Hill project are going to have their own online media platform that's still being kind of created and developed but this spring there will be opportunity for information going out and sharing that with Ask Salt Spring so that they can distribute it out. And obviously a priority is keeping the road open, right? That would be my priority. I know the detour, the alternative is not ideal. So I can just say from what I've heard in conversation of what's going to happen with other companies in the ministry,

it's going to be a very busy construction season all in all in Salt Springs. And as far as the Ganges Hill goes, obviously you've got to keep that road open. There's no alternative to that road, right? Yeah, I would think so. Although, again, that's something that's been through the Ministry of Transportation

and tendered out to another company. So they'll have their own traffic management plan. Right. Okay. Now you talked about the amount of paving that you're able to do on Salt Spring Island, and you talked about 600 to 800 metric tons of paving per year, which is quite a big percentage of the overall amount in your budget. And I think you said that the sort of the equivalent of doing Cushion Lake Road would be about like one year's budget amount. So yeah, I mean, that's how long is Cushion Lake Road? Probably three or four clicks. I don't't know exactly uh yeah we didn't do the entirety of cushion lake road um we did do a pretty substantial portion though um i want to say it was about uh a kilometer maybe a little less than a kilometer that we paved in

both lanes yeah yeah okay all, okay. All right. Okay, and you said trip road is an abomination. Oh, the intersection. The intersection, yeah. It's really difficult to navigate around there, being able to see and look over your shoulder. You almost have to be part owl. Right.

So we're just looking at reinforcing the embankment there um as there was some noticeable uh slippage happening that's where those road work signs are and as you can see there's been something sliding down the bank there correct yeah yeah so is that going to get fixed this year uh yep that's uh i was just in was just meeting with some contractors there to have a look and kind of make a plan. Right. So I think you said your estimate was that Ganges, that Salt Spring Island would get $30 million to $50 million worth of road work done this year. Isabella Point Road, G ganges hill blackburn and

trip were the ones that you you listed and i think you said there might be more that you yeah um just with the number of projects i don't have obviously uh final numbers and i think a lot of them are still going out to tender um but based on the description of the project and my own construction knowledge that is a sound kind of ballpark figure um so i i'm sure once the information uh like the ministry normally does when they um announce a project they'll have the the big project sign with the this is how much this costed on the side of the road. So as soon as things are tendered and finalized, I think dollar figures will finally be realized on what the cost of these things are going to be. I think everybody's probably hoping that due to the sort of delays that we sometimes see with these projects,

that it actually won't start in the summertime when we have our busiest tourist season, that it will actually start in the fall. I don't know. Unfortunately, I mean, normally that's how we look at a construction window is from spring until fall. I know it's everybody's favorite time of year to get out and see the sunshine, and that's when the tourism kicks up but that is really the ideal time to start looking at excavating and doing ground works is when things are dry and you're not going to have any kind of issues with water or rain or adverse weather that we normally get in the fall so because I know when Rob Fleming came last year and said it was going to start in the fall of last year, that was what he said. Of course he didn't, but I think everybody was like, oh, that sounds okay because it's not going to be quite so hectic residents on Salt Spring that the ministry has

their best interests in mind when they're putting this kind of funding to a project and they're not going to do something that's going to deliberately bring Salt Spring Island to a halt right there'll be some serious consideration to traffic flows and and that'll be a big part of the thinking behind the project so now I know that I was a big part of the thinking behind the project. I was a bit surprised where people were talking about the Mount Maxwell Road which has got a reputation of being one of the most difficult roads on the island unless you have a very high

vehicle or a four-wheel drive. Even then it can be challenging. And you spend quite a bit of money every year putting gravel on the road, you said, and it just washes away. And your idea was that it would make sense to actually gate off the road lower down, I guess, and then have people walk up there. Do you think that's something that will actually happen? Would there be too much of an outcry, do you think?

I mean, that's not a decision I'll ever make. That's not within my jurisdiction. And I've mentioned it to the ministry before. The problem is that the road is so steep and and not constructed properly that um yes with combination of the water washing gravel away but also when people are spinning their tires right they're chewing the road up and ruining it and um i don't have the resources time or people to be out there and grade that road every other day or every week or yeah so so that's a road that will never be never be fixed i think you

said probably unless probably never constructed properly um we do as i say every year typically the ministry will ask us to fix the road up and we do and it lasts for um a few months maybe so the idea would be to put a parking lot in somewhere closer to the bottom right that would be my concept would be you know make it a nice um sort of park access and a walking trail and um i realize that kind of limits uh access to some people um but uh the alternative is is um we just continue doing what we're doing i guess yeah and then people can't get up there anyway, so it's an issue. Okay. Oh, interestingly, not interestingly, but you say you have a number that people can call

when they have problems with foliage growing across the road or scratching their cars or whatever, I guess, or blocking viewpoints. And that, can you repeat the number for the listeners again? Yeah, so our road hazard reporting line is toll-free, 1-866-353-3136. Right, so it's 1-866-353-3136. Yeah. Great. Now, MCOM's been in charge since 2019, right?

Correct. Okay. And you have a 10-year contract? Correct. And it's possible the government might at some point, you said around year eight, extend it for another five years? Correct. Yeah, okay. So do you have any kind of a wish list of things you want to do on Salt Spring in the next, you know, 10 to 15 years?

Oh, Lord. So many things. Mostly repaving, though. I would love to see Fulford Ganges completely paved, one end to the other one harbor to town um and um i mean there's lots of really narrow roads that shouldn't necessarily be narrow and i understand islands trust as kind of some kind of grip on um keeping island roads with to a maintained to be island roads so a little narrower a little more bushy a little um how do you want to call it? Rural. Rustic and rural in a sense, to keep the aesthetic and the feeling of the Gulf Islands.

But I do feel like that some of the main roads should be more of a provincial standard or a provincial engineering standard where it's a little wider, the brush is cut back a little further the ditches are dug in such a way so that um you know uh we can just make sure that everyone can get around salt spring and then enjoy maybe some of those off the beaten path trails or roads that are a little more rural and and stuff right Yeah. And your priority is the main roads and also the bus routes, right?

That's really where we focus our efforts. I just, if there's something that needs attention on a side road, of course we'll respond to it on a residential road. And, of course, we'll deal with it. But when it comes to our overall budget for the year for I don't want to necessarily call it improvements but that's where our paving and our bigger ticket items are we really focus on main roads and bus routes and secondaries yeah, to do the whole of Fulford Ganges Road

would be a huge expense, though, wouldn't it? I think it's 14 kilometers, 14 and change kilometers. And in my own ballpark, to resurface it, it would be probably in the neighborhood of $15 to $20 million. For the whole thing? One end to one end yeah yeah it's not not inexpensive no and so that would have to come from uh senior government presumably yeah that would take on my budget that would take 20 years Yeah. So, unfortunately, we can do bits and pieces and bytes and take the worst areas out. Right. Okay.

Great. Well, thanks for coming in. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. You've been listening to Ask Salt Spring Answered on Gulf Islands Community Radio, cheer.fm, the voice of the Gulf Islands.