It’s been four months since heavy rain contributed to a landslide that covered a portion of Highway 837, north west of the town of Drumheller and the highway still isn’t open. That’s frustrating farmers and acreage owners who live in the Orkney area because their drive into Drumheller has jumped from about 20 minutes, to nearly an hour. “A lot of people here have businesses in town or live in town and farm and it’s just been a problem for them all summer,” said farmer Blaine Ferguson. “One fella lives within half a mile of slide, but he’s going (the opposite direction, passing my house) at five in the morning to get to his business that’s probably about (eight kilometres) down the road from his house and that it’s kind of discouraging after all this time, you know.” Residents north of town can take the Bleriot Ferry to cross the river reducing their commute time by about half. The problem they say is the ferry has reduced hours in the fall and only operates from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Steve Vernon, a local business owner, says he’s gone from working a six to eight-hour day to a 10-hour day. “I come out in the morning from Drumheller and gather my equipment or whatever I have to do,” he said. “Then I have to go right back to Drumheller or wherever but it takes 50 minutes if you go around and then if you go by ferry, sometimes you can’t take some of your equipment over (because it’s too heavy).” Ferguson farms more than 1,800 hectares and this year seeded canola, barley and wheat and is in the process of harvesting his crops with about 400 hectares left to combine. Some of his hired help comes from Drumheller and work longer than the ferry runs in the fall. “You try to work as late at night as you can then they have to travel quite a big route all the way around because the ferry that used to run till 11 closes down at seven now,” he said. “It’s an awful lot of time and fuel for those guys and I compensate them for fuel and time because they shouldn’t have to add that much to their day you know.” Vernon says Drumheller is losing out on business because of the blocked highway. “Drumheller should be concerned about it too because there is a lot of good business people out here and good people that spend a lot of money in Drumheller,” he said. “I think of it as like the cat coming into your house - he wants to come in the house, but if you don’t let him in he’s going to find another house to go in and so that’s what’s happening here. All the farmers and everybody are going to go to other towns for their business. Construction crews continue to work at the site of the slide but the province isn’t saying when the highway will reopen. “Heavy rainfall events in late spring and early summer contributed to large landslides which buried the highway. There was also serious damage to the slide barriers and the electronic sensors which provide an early warning system for potential landslides,” said a transportation department spokesperson in a release. ”Crews are currently assessing damage to the driving surface and will begin any necessary repairs. In the meantime, new concrete barriers are being delivered to the site, and replacement parts for the sensors have been ordered. The highway will remain closed until all repairs have been completed.” Ferguson’s family homesteaded in the area in the early 1900s and his father started the family farm in 1947. He says Highway 837 has always been prone to landslides, but none have taken this long to fix. “It’s probably been 75, 80 years that it didn’t have a sensor on it,” he said. “You can see the slide, you know and you clean it up, not wait for four months for a sensor to tell you it slid, you can you can see that for yourself.”
