WOODLANDS COUNTY - Woodlands County councillors want a stop sign a short distance outside the Hamlet of Fort Assiniboine, which Alberta Transportation moved following the resurfacing of Highway 661, moved back to its original location.
During its March 27 meeting in Whitecourt, council instructed administration to formally request that Alberta Transportation move the stop sign currently at the bottom of the hill on Highway 661 to the end of Township Road 620A at the Highway 661 intersection.
The highway takes a 90-degree turn at the intersection of Township Road 620A before it goes up a hill.
Infrastructure director Andre Bachand said councillors asked administration staff to ask the ministry why they opted for the change, saying they were concerned it could increase accidents and collisions.
In an e-mail response, Alberta Transportation said they decided to move the sign following a traffic safety review in which they studied the posted speed limit, collision data at the Highway 661 Township Road 620A intersection, road geometry, intersection sight distances and traffic operations and volumes.
Bachand said after considering everything, Alberta Transportation concluded that a stop sign should be placed at the north leg approaching the intersection to facilitate free flow in the east-west direction.
In a subsequent e-mail, Alberta Transportation staff explained, "T-intersections require special traffic control considerations. Typically, the municipal road will have a stop sign before entering the highway due to the imbalance in traffic volume and operating speed. There are exceptions to this rule. In this case, the analysis revealed that the east-west road has a higher volume, triggering the recommended signage."
Bachand said that although the present location is the ministry's preferred location for the sign, they were willing, at the municipality's request, to move it back to its initial location as the present traffic volumes are low, but reserved the right to change to move it back to the bottom of the hill on Highway 661. Goose Lake/Freeman River Coun. Peter Kuelken said returning the stop sign to Township Road 620A was a "no-brainer."
"What I find interesting [about the location change] is that there is a stop sign for the people coming down the hill, but what about the people going up?" he asked. There is no indication of whether the drivers from Township Road 620A are stopping or not, and there is no indicator that someone who is going to turn left [from Highway 661 onto Township Road 620A] has to stop."
Fort Assiniboine/Timeu Coun. Devin Williams said he was pleased Alberta Transportation was willing to consider moving the stop sign to its original location. However, he questioned how the ministry came up with its traffic count numbers, saying the roads can be quite busy.
Williams then motioned to instruct administration to send a formal request to Alberta Transportation to move the stop sign back to its original location. The motion passed unanimously.
