The City of Richmond has finally filled in potholes that have been plaguing the daily lives of Hamilton residents for two years.
Fourteen potholes, each about two inches deep, on Smith Drive, between Gilley Road and McColl Crescent, were finally filled in this week, according to Lori Williams, a long-time Hamilton resident.
“The potholes were deep and they got even deeper as time passed,” said Williams, adding many vehicles would “bottom out” while passing through the street.
“It was just ridiculous and just so annoying.”
She described the road as an obstacle course with cars often weaving back and forth into the on-coming lanes just to avoid the potholes.
“You’re just asking for an accident to happen … and it’s a major safety issue because it’s directly in front of the school.”
To add to the frustration of Hamilton residents, Williams said there were unanswered questions who was responsible to fix the road - the city or the developer who’s building in the area.
“It was just non-stop, back and forth,” she said.
City spokesperson Clay Adams confirmed with the Richmond News the road situation in Hamilton was their responsibility as it was related to “older utility installations that had settled.”
City crews were scheduled to fix the roads on Friday morning but dealt with it on Thursday morning.
Williams said she never expected the city to take this much time to fix a “serious” pothole-related problem.
“There’s … 14 of them there and on both sides of the road, it’s not like one or two that you can just avoid,” she said.
“We just want safer and more accessible roads for our neighbourhood.”
