'It's dangerous': Closed roads in eastern P.E.I. worry farmer

A farmer in the Montague area is concerned about the closure of a bridge in Lyndale, P.E.I., near Settlement Road and Highway 353.

Gabriel Verleun drives his large farming equipment such as his combine on main roads instead of using the bridge and back roads, which he says is dangerous. Verleun said the bridge has been closed since spring and he wants it reopened. 

It's dangerous on the road.- Gabriel Verleun

"You can use that road to get you off heavy traveled roads with your farm equipment, which plugs up the traffic and it's dangerous on the road especially if you're 20 feet wide. You're trying to negotiate around cars," said Verleun.    

Verleun said it's safer for farmers in large vehicles to be on the back roads. He said he's heard his neighbours have the same concerns. 

Back roads important to agricultural community

"I had to use another road that was curvy and windy and I'm 21 feet wide. And you can only see a quarter of a kilometre ahead of you. It's kind of scary to know if there's a big truck coming," he said. "And then you have to go right to the edge." 

"They should be looking after the country people too," said Verleun. 

The issue of closed back roads goes beyond the bridge in Lyndale said Steven Myers, MLA for Georgetown–St. Peters. He said those roads are important to Islanders because they use them for agricultural purposes — an important sector in rural communities. He said he's received "quite a few messages," about closed roads. 

"I've also heard complaints of the Grove Pine Road that's in back of Dundas area. And they're both similar situations where government kind of came in in the dark of night and closed them. Never gave any explanation to anyone," said Myers. 

Safety concerns

Myers said there's frustration because the provincial government hasn't followed up to say if there will be any replacement work done where roads are closed. He said some residents don't want to use the main roads because the shoulders are sometimes soft , which can be dangerous for large farm equipment when pulling over and making room for other vehicles. 

"They're rural country roads, the shoulders are soft and may not hold a machine that size," said Myers.  

No immediate plans to fix bridge

The bridge in Lyndale has been closed because of structural concerns and there are no immediate plans to fix it because there's a "low volume of traffic" said Darrell Evans, director of capital projects with the Department of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Energy.

He said the bridge on Grove Pine Road was damaged due to a fire and there are no immediate plans to replace the structure. 

"In terms of what we have for available budgets, we just can't fix everything at the same time. So we're being a little bit strategic on how we spend our capital dollars on certain structures in terms of volume of traffic and importance of the highway network," said Evans.  

Evans said several other structures have been closed because of structural concerns and low traffic including on the Hermitage Road, Floating Bridge Road, in Lords Pond in the Tryon area and on Bay Road in the Coleman area.  

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