Driver frustrated with province's lack of action on giant pothole

A man on Nova Scotia's South Shore is fed up with the massive pothole in his neighbourhood that hasn't been fixed in two years despite his ongoing communication with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal.

Where Frank Swinamer Road meets Highway 3 in the community of Western Shore, not far from Chester, there's a pothole so wide it almost doesn't look like a pothole anymore.

"It goes across the whole road, but the worst part is on the right-hand side when you [turn] onto the Number 3 highway," said Cecil Swinamer, who lives nearby and uses the intersection every day.

"You have to drive into it to really appreciate how bad it is."

Swinamer said the only way to get by, if you don't want to scratch your front bumper to bits, is to drive on the other side of the road and go around it.

He said he's concerned the pothole will eventually lead to a head-on collision because people need to swerve to avoid it.

Swinamer said the hole is infamous in the area, and some residents have come up with nicknames for it, though he prefers to call it "the hell hole."

Water often pools in the hole, he said, which proves to be "extra dangerous" in the winter.

The pothole has been growing steadily for two years, Swinamer said, and he's been in constant contact with Nova Scotia's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure asking to have it filled in.

On multiple occasions, Swinamer said he was told to follow up with the department if it wasn't fixed within two weeks. But nothing ever happened.

At one point, Swinamer said someone from the department set up a large traffic cone by the pothole.

"But that's as far as they went," he said. The cone isn't there anymore.

Earlier this month, Swinamer said some repatching work was done on a portion of North Street, one block down Frank Swinamer Road, and a flagman sign was set up at the pothole to warn oncoming traffic of road work ahead. But the sign was taken down when the work was finished.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal said in an email paving and maintenance work are scheduled for Frank Swinamer Road some time this summer.

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