A $3.3 million contract has been awarded to Okanagan Aggregates Ltd. for paving sections of Highway 20 east of Nimpo Lake, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure confirmed Monday, Sept. 27.
“Work will begin in the coming weeks,” a MoTI spokesperson confirmed, noting the highway maintenance contractor continues to monitor and grade the road as necessary in advance of the paving.
Axel Koehn lives on Highway 20 between Tatla Lake and Kleena Kleene and said the whole section from Puntzi Lake turnoff to Nimpo Lake is in bad condition.
“We have had multiple accidents lately along this stretch of the highway, vehicles skidding off the road due to the gravel road stretches and probably high speed,” he told Black Press Media.
“There are hundreds of potholes and temporary patched sections of highway with just gravel.”
Koehn also said he has also been without phone service since the beginning of September and had not been given a date for it to be repaired as of Monday, Sept. 27.
“Ironically the road repair crew ripped our phone line down with the pole on September 2,” he said. “Our friend is out of phone service for two weeks also and there are more Telus customers in the dark.”
On Monday afternoon, Koehn checked and saw a new hole for a replacement pole had been made so he is hopeful in a few weeks he can talk on the phone again.
He lives in an area that does not have cell phone coverage.
Telus responded in an e-mail noting earlier this month, a third party road incident caused damage to a Telus telephone line, which has caused intermittent home phone service for a few local customers.
“We understand that having a reliable connection at home is important, and our crews have worked to repair the line and fully restore service multiple times since early Septmember,” said Liz Sauvé, communications for Telus. “Our investigation recently determined there may be a power line interfering with these connections and we are working with our partners to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
Crews will be on site Thursday, September 30 to fully restore service.
Editor’s note: This story was updated from the original with a response from Telus.
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