Let’s recap.
During the meeting of Athabasca town council last Tuesday, chief administrative officer Doug Topinka produced a map identifying a proposed location for the new Highway 813 bridge over the Athabasca River.
Topinka referenced a meeting he had with engineers and Alberta Transportation officials in the report he made to council.
The map depicts the north side of the river with a proposed realignment of Highway 813, slightly to the southwest, approximately in line with the current Lions Centennial Park access road.
But not long after said presentation, the validity of the map was called into question by Alberta Transportation itself (representative Heather Kaszuba said she didn’t know where it came from) while the town noted it “wasn’t public knowledge”.
It’s a head spinning turn to what should be a deliberate and transparent process.
Surely the route illustrated on the map came from a representative of Alberta Transportation (though clearly not Kaszuba). Topinka certainly didn’t come up with it himself. Yet now the government ministry claims to have no knowledge of the map’s origin and won’t confirm that the design depicted is one they’re considering, let alone their preferred one.
Alberta Transportation is pledging to consult with the community on the project this summer, but the emergence of this map raises questions as to whether they already have their own ideas on what the best plan would be. Will they truly listen to the thoughts and concerns of the community, or will these summer consultations simply pay lip service to the issue?
If some of this sounds familiar to long-time Athabasca-area residents, it should. It’s eerily similar to the process that unfolded in the years — actually, more than a decade — before construction started on the Highway 55/813 interchange last fall. Full community and public engagement was promised, but when the so-called options for the interchange were presented, only one was identified as practically and economically feasible.
Sometimes major engineering projects, like bridges and interchanges, have limited options in terms of location, size. etc. But if Alberta Transportation is going to promise public consultation on the location of the future bridge, they need to make good on that; not just create the appearance of input when they really have a single option in mind.
Alberta Transportation has pledged public engagement, and they need to deliver.
