Dusty, noisy days and nights for people in Yellowknife's Lakeshore Developments
Construction on Kam Lake Road means traffic that previously flowed along the industrial boulevard has now been routed through a small residential neighbourhood.
Road work crews are ripping up asphalt, adding curbs and installing street lights on the busy thoroughfare.
"It's getting old fast for us here in the neighbourhood," said Damien Ramm, a resident of Lakeshore Developments.
While he appreciates the roads being fixed, he said he never sees anyone working on the site behind his house.
"I would almost want to go and volunteer my time there just to get it going at least," Ramm said.
Kam Lake Road traffic now takes a detour at Gibben Drive and ends up on Hall Crescent.
Hall Crescent is a narrow gravel road snaking through one of the city's newest residential developments on the cusp of the Kam Lake industrial area. It's lined with manufactured homes and residents have spruced up the area with decks, shrubs and potted flowers, making the best of gravel frontage.
A stop sign at Gibben Drive and Hall Crescent brings traffic to a crawl as semi-trucks, motorcycles and local traffic congest the street. During the evening rush hour, traffic slowly rolls past in a continuous, dusty convoy out front of Ramm's home.
Ramm said that both he and his wife have been late for work in the morning trying to back out of their driveway into traffic. It can take up to 30 minutes to get out of their driveway if they forget to back their cars in the night before.
'All dust and noise'
"It's all dust and noise," said Aneesh Retnakaran, Ramm's neighbour. He shares Ramm's complaints, and said traffic noise is keeping his small kids up at night.
"They could have planned it better," Retnakaran said.
He suggests removing the stop signs, having larger industrial vehicles bypass down a different street, or keeping one side of Kam Lake Road open for vehicles to travel on rather than through his neighbourhood.
Ramm and Retnakaran have contacted the city about the bypass. Ramm also wrote on the city's Facebook page. The city responded with an apology and sent him a link to where he could find updates on construction projects. Retnakaran called the city and was told the Mayor would see if anything could be done.
Retnakaran said he didn't receive any notice about the temporary bypass going in, and the dust is getting worse.
The City of Yellowknife told the CBC there was no one available to comment.
