The Horsefly Road is closed in both directions due to a washout at Bells Lake Road 16 kilometers west of Horsefly.
David Rhodes, Quality Manager with Dawson Road Maintenance said a seasonal freshet stream came up and started eroding the road significantly yesterday. It’s been flowing across the Bells Lake Road a little bit in high water and it started eroding into the shoulder of the Horsefly Road which is where the cross culvert is and collapsing the road as the materials became saturated with water.
“Yesterday afternoon we did an initial closure while we did a quick inspection to make sure where we’re at and about a third of the road had been washed at that point.” Rhodes said, “We did single lane alternating traffic to allow people back and forth as much as we could, but then later in the evening the road was eroded too much to allow traffic to keep going so we did a hard closure and our implementing detour.”
There are a couple of detour roads, if you have a 4 by 4 vehicle the shorter way would be Spokin Lake Road or Rideau Lake Road to Mile 108 Horsefly Road, or a little bit longer, but you can use any kind of vehicle, would be to take the Beaver Valley Road over to the Likely Road and down to the Horsefly Road intersection.
Rhodes noted both of those detours add an hour to your time, they’re both going to be busier roads, both have freshet challenges and those roads are going to deteriorate somewhat due to the softness that’s already in them and increase traffic flow.
“The initial assessment is an evaluation of whether we can use a temporary bridge-type structure or a local detour around there.” Rhodes said, “Both of those evaluations are in the process now, no decision has been made on either one of them, that’s kind of a joint thing with Ministry of Transportation and Dawson Road Maintenance to figure out what the best approach is going to be there.”
Rhodes thanks the local residents for their patience and said Dawson Road Maintenance and the Ministry are doing everything they can, there’s no quick easy fix, it’s a process to do it right and do it right the first time so it’s important that everything is managed in a safe manner.