Traffic lights planned for Highway 3
News
Posted By Joni MacFarlane, Editor
Posted 1 month ago
Plans to four-lane a portion of Highway 3 in Crowsnest Pass have been scrapped by the province.
A cost of $11 million for a three-kilometre stretch of road between Blairmore and Coleman was deemed too high a price tag. Instead, changes to two intersections are going ahead and more are being considered.
Regional Director of Alberta Transportation Darrell Camplin and engineer, Phil Luchka brought council up to speed last week on what their department is planning to improve traffic flow on one of the province's busiest corridors.
After meetings held over a year ago, Alberta Transportation hired engineering firm AMEC to look at various intersections on the highway and the possibility of adding lanes.
Two intersections were identified for upgrades, said Luchka, and will be "advanced for work" in 2011.
The intersection into Frank Industrial Park will be moved slightly to the west to line up with 150th Street and the intersection at 61st Street into the Volker Stevin yard in Coleman will also be upgraded.
Luchka told council MLA, Evan Berger, and Alberta Transportation supported these two improvements. The design and tender for construction will be developed shortly, he said.
AMEC also came forward with a concept for a four-lane painted addition from the golf course in Blairmore to the Highway 40 access in Coleman.
Luchka said although the painted concept is not a standard design for Alberta Transportation, it would work better than concrete medians or barriers.
A cost of $11 million was estimated for the work.
"This is a hard pill to swallow in terms of budget," said Luchka. "We saw the price tag and started to rethink the four-lane idea".
Instead, they are looking at pursuing more traffic signals – one at Highway 40 and one at the west Blairmore access near Tim Hortons.
The two additional traffic lights will not be synchronized because they're too far apart but rather will work on a video detection system.
"These are definite improvements and will provide improvements in gaps where people want to get on the highway," said Camplin. "The four-lane $11 million for three kilometers is very, very expensive and we'll have a hard time securing money for a short distance."
"The two intersections [at Frank and Volker Stevin] are going ahead and the other two we want to push forward."
Mayor John Irwin said changes to school busing next fall will mean increased traffic and suggested they move the entrance to the school to come off 86th Street to avoid the highway.
Camplin was agreeable to the suggestion and said he would ask the engineer to come up with concepts for that.
Not all councilors were pleased with the proposed solutions.
Councillor Dean Ward said lights at Highway 40 and Tim Hortons wouldn't do anything to speed up traffic.
Councillor David Cole agreed by saying it makes no difference to make four lanes between Blairmore and Coleman because you hit two lanes right after in both directions and that's where traffic backs up.
"It's a total waste of money," said Councillor Cole. "There's other things to look at to use $11 million like a crosswalk to school or a cross-over. You should look at the safety of our students versus four lanes from Blairmore."
Councillor Larry Mitchell agreed.
"Why not do a good job right now versus piecemeal it through now?"
"There's a finite amount of money across the province," said Camplin. "We're here saying this is what we should do but we're looking for support from council to say yes, this is something we can put provincial money towards."
Councillor Ian MacLeod reiterated that the traffic backs up in Frank and Coleman.
"This amounts to a decent road going into bottlenecks," said MacLeod. "That's where the traffic problem is."
"Our goal is to make Highway 3 last as long as it currently stands as long as it's economically viable," said Camplin.
