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Walking into Eric Nyiri’s backyard in Regina’s north end, you might think it hadn’t been used all summer, but the thick layer of dust that covers everything isn’t from time passing – it’s from the nearby Pinkie Road.
Nyiri moved into his current house in the Edgewater neighbourhood that backs the gravel road almost two years ago. He said the dust wasn’t great before, but this year it’s much worse and is causing medical problems.
“My asthma has returned and I haven’t had asthma since I was 13. I can’t go anywhere without my inhaler anymore.”
His dog is wheezing, and Nyiri said his neighbour’s new dog has bumps on its bronchial tubes because of the dust.
Nyiri said they just can’t go outside.
“My wife is six months pregnant and she’d love to be outside but we can’t. Brand new yard, brand new deck, it’s just impossible to be there.”
He said the entire community is fed up with the dust. Many people have been calling the city and asking for something to be done, but according to Nyiri no one has gotten a straight answer.
Norman Kyle is the director of roadways and transportation with the City of Regina. He said when it comes to dirt roads like Pinkie Road and part of Winnipeg Street, city crews monitor their conditions and treat it with oil them when needed.
Pinkie Road has been oiled twice so far this year, in April and the last week in June.
Nyiri said it helps for about a week, less time if it rains at night, but soon the problem continues. He wants the city to do something more permanent, like paving the approximately 800 meters of the road from 9th Avenue N to a nearby bridge.
“The amount of taxes we pay into the city, they should be able to pave the road at least to the bridge,” said Nyiri.
Kyle said the city has a limited budget to maintain all of the high-grade gravel roads in the city and to change their level of service is costly.
“We’ve got 66 kilometres to maintain. So it’s not just one section of gravel road we have to be concerned about, there’s sections all over the city we have to maintain.”
Normally the gravel roads are oiled two to three times a year, and Kyle said he expects they’ll have to do it again before the year is out.
Currently there is no plan to pave Pinkie Road. Kyle explained the city is doing a functional study on the road, and doesn’t want to pave this section if it’s going to have to be pulled up and turned into a four-lane road at some point.
Kyle said the city has started talking about possibly testing out cold-planing on Pinkie Road and Winnipeg Street, which is a type of asphalt milling or asphalt gravel. That plan could happen this year, but at this point they’re only talking about it and have no timeline.
Two of the likely reasons for the dust being worse is that there is more traffic on the road and those people are speeding. Kyle said the city is monitoring traffic on the road, and may talk to the Regina Police Service about doing speed enforcement there.
In the meantime, people in Edgewater will have to continue wiping down their backyards, and Nyiri will have to keep his inhaler on hand.
