LAC LA BICHE - It's been a dusty gap, a rocky road, a missing link, and to some, an infrastructure embarrassment in the community for decades— but thanks to funding announced in the recent provincial budget, a 16-kilometre section of Highway 858 north of Lac La Biche lake may finally get paved.
The gravel 'gap' is in the middle of the paved highway that runs north from Plamondon and around Lac La Biche lake to the intersection of Highway 881 at Owl River. The stretch of highway — which is part of the province's infrastructure network — has been left as a gravel surface through two complete construction projects over the years, one paving the highway from the west, and the other from the east.The paving project has been on the municipality's wish list to Alberta Transportation for two decades.
Last week, Lac La Biche County officials said the provincial budget might be paving the way to a solution.
"The Province, in their Transportation budget, did announce engineering and design for the paving of that road," said Lac La Biche County CAO Dan Small, explaining that the gravel could be gone over the next two construction seasons depending on provincial finances. "The engineering and design this year, and maybe the paving will be next year."
Although not specifically outlined in the Alberta Transportation 2023-2026 Capital Plan, the Highway 858 project could be part of an estimated $403.1 million budget line for "Highway Twinning, Widening and Expansion" over the next three years. The same Capital Plan also lists an expenditure in the 2023-24 construction year of $24.78 million for "multiple engineering projects." The expenditures are part of a projected budget spend of more than $22 billion in the Transportation ministry from 2023 to 2026.
Small says the municipality is happy to see Highway 858 finally part of that spend.
"This council and previous councils while I’ve bene here for 11 years — and even well before that — have been lobbying and advocating," said Small, adding that elected officials even debated taking over the highway from Alberta Transportation to fix the problem. "We even offered to take it over and pave it ourselves at one point."
Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov welcomed the announcement, calling it "good news" a long time in the making, and a significant "win" for the community.
Intersections and 881 too
Along with the attention to Highway 858, Alberta Transportation has set aside significant dollars over the next three years for work on Highway 881 north of Lac La Biche. According to Alberta's Budget 2023 and the three-year capital plan, Highway 881 will be seeing more than $50 million in safety and roadway improvements by 2026.
Small said those kinds of improvements are likely to include intersection upgrades "along 881 and other places" within the rural areas of the municipality.
