亚洲天堂 Lake resident Ian Carnie is questioning the safety of the drop-off at the top of the guardrail east of the Richmond Loop project. Carnie claims the drop-off is unprotected and poses a safety issue, especially under severe weather conditions. He is calling for extra guardrails to be installed.

鈥淎re we going to have to wait until someone drives off the edge in a snow storm for the extra few guardrails that are needed to be installed?鈥� Carnie said.

He also noted there are no traffic control personnel on site and that the orange plastic marker 'sticks' are usually lying down, leaving only the black bases visible. 鈥淭his is not good enough,鈥� he said.

Despite raising the issue with both the local government and representatives from the Highway department in Smithers, Carnie says he is still without concrete answers.

He said he spoke to representatives from the Highways division managed by the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) and was informed that the contract is the responsibility of the Village of 亚洲天堂 Lake.

In response, the Village of 亚洲天堂 Lake stated that the project was built to Highways specifications. Following a letter to the editor, Carnie emailed Lakes District 亚洲天堂 about an update he received after a follow-up call with the highways department. He claimed the highways office said they had tried to get 亚洲天堂 Lake to address this issue but were being stonewalled and not receiving a response.

Village of 亚洲天堂 Lake Chief Administrative Officer Sheryl Worthing responded to the concerns, stating that the guardrails were installed as part of the Richmond Loop/Hwy 16 Intersection Improvement Project. 鈥淐onstruction for this project is based on MOTI engineered specifications,鈥� Worthing said. 鈥淭he Village has no authority to make changes to these engineered specifications,鈥� she added, noting, 鈥淗wy 16 is MOTI jurisdiction. It would be up to MOTI to install additional guardrails if warranted.鈥�

Lakes District 亚洲天堂 has reached out to MOTI for an update