Colinton residents and Athabasca County councillor for Colinton Denis Willcott say there is a problem with provincial Highway 663, but Alberta Transportation disagrees.
“Highway 663 is a provincial highway and it is a fairly low volume route,” Alberta Transportation spokesperson Jeanna Friedley said. “Collisions are not common on that stretch of highway and not in the town of Colinton.”
Councillor Willcott tells a different story.
“We get a lot of traffic on that highway, and I live right by there,” he said.
“The highway was not built for that amount of traffic.”
Coming into Colinton from the west there is a turn, which has a speed limit of 50 kilometres an hour.
“I hope the government does something because that’s a bad turn,” Willcott said. “If we could widen the highway it would make a big difference.”
Friedley said there is ample room for vehicles to negotiate the turn.
“We are aware of a vehicle rollover that happened on Aug. 24. The towing company advised our operations manager that they were removing a vehicle, and they had closed sections of the road temporarily,” Friedley said.
“Our main messaging on this would be that in an instance like this where the roads are temporarily closed or where a towing company is working, we would remind motorists to slow down, and that speed fines are doubled when emergency vehicles are president.”
Willcott said accidents are becoming more frequent.
“The last few years there have been more because there has been more traffic,” he said. “There always (were) accidents, but not like there are now. There is not enough room to pass.”
Willcott is part of a committee determined to build a truck route around Athabasca, which would eliminate traffic from driving through Colinton, unless it was local.
“Everyone is working on it, even the government,” Willcott said.
“The government is aware and that is why we are working on a bypass.”
But Alberta Transportation said there is no significant danger on Highway 663.
“Our message from Alberta Transportation is safety first, and our primary concern is always keeping Alberta motorists safe,” Friedley said. “It is not a particularly high volume provincial highway, and collisions are not common at that location or the highway.”
Willcott said some trucks are forced to travel through Colinton because the turns in Athabasca are too sharp for them.
“They are forced going though there,” he said. “We are working on it, all of county council.”
There is another truck bypass committee meeting with Alberta Transportation coming up on Sept. 10, one of 13 such meetings.
“Alberta Transportation has retained a consultant to undertake a study to review possible alternative bypass truck routes around the Town of Athabasca, and they will be able to recommend the best alternative,” Friedley said.
“Overall we would consider it to be a very safe section of road.”
