By Ryan Pilon

Plans to end the flooding in the RM of Buckland

Apr 7, 2011 | 11:46 AM

It’s a common sight for the Rural Municipality of Buckland for this time of year — crew members for the department of highways and infrastructure pumping water off its service road.

Every spring, the service road floods so badly that it makes it nearly impossible to drive on.

“You can’t see the road at all and you just drive right into the ditch,” said Shannon Chisholm, who works at the One Stop Convenience store located along the service road.

“All the water runs down to the one point, the lowest point, and then it floods,” said a crew member, who asked to have his name withheld.

“It’s pretty well all spring [that we have to pump water off the road], because [we’ve] got to keep coming back, because there’s no drainage.”

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The crew member said the rural municipality used to have a culvert, but it’s all plugged up with mud, and plans to fix the problem so far have been dismissed.

“They had a plan here a year or two ago to build culverts to the back, and have a drain where they’d pump out the mud, but they figured it’d cost too much and it won’t work,” said the crew member.

Chisholm said their business is affected by the flooding.

“It is an inconvenience. Some people just drive past the stores because it’s so flooded,” she said.

However, it seems plans are in motion to find a long-term solution to the problem.

Dan Palmer, with the ministry of highways and infrastructure, said they, along with the rural municipality, are in the process of hiring a consultant to find a way to permanently improve drainage in the area.

“It’s expected that the consultant will, obviously after they’re hired, will start their work hopefully this spring, with hopefully some recommendations to follow this fall,” said Palmer.

In the meantime, crews will continue to pump out water to keep the service road as drivable as possible.

rpilon@panow.com

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