Alberta Transportation plans to hold a public open house Oct. 18 regarding a possible highway bypass around Athabasca.
“The county and town have asked us to look at reducing the amount of truck traffic that is having to come through town, so we have begun to look at different routes that might use existing infrastructure, or possibilities where new infrastructure will have to be built,” Alberta Transportation regional director Michael Botros told Athabasca town council last Tuesday.
“The corridor we are looking at is between Highway 812 and Highway 827 and from Highway 63 north.”
Botros noted that both municipalities have asked Alberta Transportation to look into alternatives and other bypass routes. Based on this request, Alberta Transportation has begun the process of doing a study and intends to hold an open house Oct. 18 to get some feedback about the possibilities that have come out of the study.
“We have had a consultant take a look at possible options and before we go any further in the process, we want to get the feedback from the public and the community,” Botros said, “because we don’t know the area and there might be some issues we are unaware of, so we want to know we are going in the right direction.
“We want to hear the pros and cons of what we have come up with so far so that we can refine the plans and make more appealing options in the end.”
Botros told town council that once a plan is set in place with designs and a complete budget, the project will go into a queue in the three-year plan that the province works on, and as projects are completed throughout the province, this one will move up the priority list.
In addition to the bypass study open house, Botros discussed the future replacement of the bridge that crosses the Athabasca River as part of Highway 813. At present, Alberta Transportation continues to do maintenance on the existing bridge, but they realize that a replacement needs to happen sooner rather than later.
However, that is not in the current three-year plan, noted Botros.
He added that they are also working on a plan and assessment of where the best location for the new bridge will be and would like to have another public open house as early as November for this project. It will ultimately follow a similar path to the bypass study and Botros would like to see a plan and budget in place as soon as possible so the project can go into the provincial queue.
Councillor George Hawryluk asked Botros what needs to be done to get the project prioritized in the queue sooner. Botros noted that there are many factors to getting the project done, but Alberta Transportation is already taking the first steps in getting the bridge assessed and looking at where the new bridge should be placed.
Councillor Lionel Cherniwchan noted that it’s a matter of safety and he would like to see this happen as soon as possible.
“Every time you drive over the bridge there is wood that moves all over the place and there is hardly anything anchoring the planking anymore,” Cherniwchan said. “What I’m thinking is how many more years do we have to wait to get a new bridge before this one collapses?”
Botros said a structural study of the bridge was done and that there are still a good number of years left on the bridge, but they can’t even begin to consider starting a project if they don’t know where to start. In the meantime, repairs and maintenance are the focus until the bridge is no longer serviceable, at which point a new one will become a high priority.
He said public consultation is important for this project as well because Alberta Transportation needs to make sure that all stakeholders, including councils and residents, are satisfied with the path they plan to take.
Councillor Paula Evans noted that even if they like the plan, they’ll have to deal with the wait for it to be put into action as the amount of traffic grows.
In response to Evans’ concerns, Botros noted that the best course of action at the moment is to follow through with the public open house and continue getting a plan in place so that when the time comes, it’ll be ready to go.
He said he understands that having the bridge shut down for 10 weeks is not what the community wants, so they are looking at alternative methods for what to do when replacing the bridge.
Lastly, Botros discussed the current project underway with the Tawatinaw River bridge that leads eastward out of town along Highway 55 towards Highway 63.
He noted that construction is well underway and, as many people drivers have already seen, they have switched traffic over to the new bridge and are pretty close to being on schedule, weather permitting.
He added that there is still much to be done before pedestrians can access the sidewalk area, including some demolition work, but this will all be completed by the end of this fall season.
Included in this project is a new expansion and reconfiguration of the Highway 55 and Highway 813 intersection.
Evans asked Botros about the possibility of signal lights at the future intersection, given the high amounts of traffic that go through the area. Mayor Roger Morrill noted that traffic statistics don’t necessarily show is the increase the town is seeing in the amounts of traffic, compared to other places in the province.
Botros noted that at the present time, the traffic flow doesn’t warrant a set of signal lights, but the design will allow for the implementation of traffic lights in the future if need be.
