In the wake of another tragedy on Highway 881, Lac La Biche Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw and Drew Barnes, the MLA for Medicine Hat, began a road trip information tour last week, driving Highways 881 and 63.
The two Wildrose MLAs started their tour Wednesday Aug. 29 — four days after a 45-year old woman died in a crash with a large truck on 881 — by meeting with Lac La Biche County Council and representatives from the Chamber of Commerce to help nail down some answers to the increasing troubles with the north-south connector highways.
“The purpose of this tour is to gather information to make a strong case as to why the PC Government is not taking the maintenance and twinning of these highways seriously,” Saskiw said. “We need to keep putting the pressure on this government to act on their promises.”
The discussion at McArthur Place was immediately open to questions and comments from around the table, allowing councillors to voice their opinions about the long-term solution of twinning the highways or about the short-term acts that could be implemented now rather than later.
According to Saskiw, as of now, there has been no concrete timetable given by the Conservative government and no known funding plans to complete the twinning of the highway. The P.C. government did announce that they have begun to add more passing lanes to high-risk areas, but it is unknown at this time if these new passing lanes will directly affect Lac La Biche drivers.
One idea that was brought fourth by multiple individuals was upgrading Highway 881 to a primary highway.
“I’m not sure why it isn’t a primary highway already, it certainly has the traffic count to be moved from a secondary highway to a primary highway,” said County councillor Eugene Uganecz. “By doing that you could seriously improve the standard of service given to highways by the government.”
There were several ideas presented that could work as band-aid solutions to the problem, from widening the road, to creating larger shoulders and creating passing lanes. But, the over-arching consensus of this particular round table meeting was that driver attitude is the root cause of these accidents.
“Passing lanes are fine, but to me it just tells people that they are allowed to speed, just use the passing lanes instead,” said Chamber of Commerce representative Ray Ewaskiw. “How can we better enforce this road?”
The current issue stems from very sporadic police patrols that are not doing enough to stop drivers from creating dangerous situations by speeding and passing.
“Tickets are not deterrents, these oil workers can easily pay them,” said interim mayor Gail Broadbent.
Although the band-aid solutions will help reduce risk now, the plan to twin the highways is the ultimate destination. According to a study funded by the Alberta government, twinning the highway is said to reduce accidents by up to 60 per cent. But, until the government sets a definitive timeline on twinning completion, residents are forced to look at quicker alternatives to alleviate traffic congestion and avoid needless accidents.
Saskiw promised to voice the concerns of Council when the legislative assembly begins again on Oct. 23.
MINI TOUR CONTINUES IN PLAMONDON
Saskiw and Barnes continued their trip through the County stopping in at the Plamondon Heritage Centre to meet with representatives from emergency services to discuss several roadside priorities.
“We need to have work done to the Plamondon/63 Connector road,” said Richard Mahe, from the community development society of Plamondon. “It is a treacherous road that gets a ton of truck traffic trying to cut across and save time en route to Lac La Biche.”
According to Robert Richard, another member of the community development society, the state of the Plamondon highways North of 858 and the Caslan connector on 858 need to be looked at.
“We’re sending volunteer firefighters to risk their lives on these roads, we need to be damn thankful they’re willing to do it, and make those roads a little easier on them,” Richard said.
The MLA duo took the facts and list of road priorities with them as they continue their tour to Fort McMurray to bring these concerns to the mayor, and collect more data from the Wood Buffalo region.
“It’s a question of priorities and population–the government saw that it was important to build the Anthony Henday Drive, and while this is a great highway, was it necessary? Saskiw said. “We need to make sure the government understands that twinning these roads needs to be a priority now not later.”
