Group patches potholes on highway through Fort McMurray as citizen protest

Fort McMurray residents banded together on Friday to fix the highway that runs through the city. CTV News Edmonton's Matt Woodman has the story.

A group of residents has taken it upon themselves to fix potholes on Highway 63 in Fort McMurray.

The group was working on the road on Friday.

Mohammad Tarrabin, who helped organize Friday’s effort, says approximately 80 people took part.

“Everybody that came in here, they all are construction companies, landscaping companies, that they did this,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Friday, adding it only took three days to organize the volunteers.

“Fort McMurray is like nowhere man, Fort Mac is strong.”

“We started all the way from the top of the bridge, right there, you can see all the patches here, and all the way down to the hospital street to Beacon Hill,” he said.

Tarrabin said the group felt the work was necessary given the number of potholes on the highway.

“Thousands of citizens drive on this road daily, and billions of dollars go through this road from oil sand on a monthly basis,” he said.

“Their vehicles are being damaged on a daily basis. Everyone has been hurting. Since April, we’ve been talking to the government, talking to the officials.”

“Myself alone, I’m at $10,000 in repairs for my vehicles.”

He says on top of damages to vehicles, the highway conditions are a safety issue.

“This is the only road going in and out of Fort McMurray. We don’t have all the medical services… so the people that need help, they go down that highway.”

The province is responsible for the stretch of Highway 63 that goes through Fort McMurray; despite that, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Coun. Don Scott says he’s heard his share of complaints.

“A lot of frustration. A lot of residents have emailed us, and certainly the mayor and I have been talking about it a fair amount,” he said on Friday.

He says the municipality is currently in discussions to take over the portion of the highway that runs through Fort McMurray.

“That’s been going on for a fair amount of time. We actually started those discussions last year,” he said.

“We think it would just make a lot more sense, and we could deal with it a lot quicker and be very responsive to residents.”

He says the protest will send a message to the province.

“I don’t know that they’ll be able to do all of Highway 63 in a practical way, but what they do I think will certainly send a signal to the province that work needs to be done.”

Alberta’s transportation minister says he’s currently working on the transfer.

“We’re expediting that work right now. We want to see it done as soon as possible,” Devin Dreeshen told CTV News Edmonton on Friday.

He says he is empathetic with residents who are left frustrated as the process continues.

“We understand that citizens and people are frustrated, we’re all drivers, we all see bad roads, we notice the bad roads, we don’t necessarily always notice the good roads,” he said, adding that provincial contractors were scheduled to be out repairing the highway today.

Tarrabin says his group has been on the road since 9 a.m. and hasn’t seen any sign of provincial contractors.

“I think they sent them to the wrong address, or GPS is messing up there,” he said.

As for how long the volunteers will stay on the road:

“We’re doing all day, man, until there’s no more asphalt!”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Matt Woodman