ST. PAUL – Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA Scott Cyr will be seeking feedback to address the state of Highway 29 within the St. Paul area.
In late 2023, the province used $6.5 million to conduct over 30 km of paving work along Highway 29, specifically from St. Brides, and east toward Elk Point, excluding Town of St. Paul limits.
Local municipalities expressed concerns about the quality of the job at the time.
RELATED: Highway 29 paving project complete but local municipalities have concerns
The state of the highway remains one of the biggest concerns in the area, said Cyr, during a visit with County of St. Paul council on Aug. 12.
“I am working towards creating a meeting with a lot of the concerned residents as well with Alberta Transportation,” regarding the highway, said Cyr, asking if a representative from the County would be interested in coming.
Reeve Glen Ockerman said the County welcomes the invitation.
Cyr also expressed some of his own concerns with the 2023 job, including how the highway is wavy along the edges, and how there are about eight-to-nine-inch drops on the highway’s approaches.
“I don't know how you could say that's an OK way of dealing with it, and they didn't make it as flat as it needed to be. So, there's a lot of issues with that,” said Cyr.
During a media roundtable on Aug. 14, Lakeland This Week asked Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshen if the province is reviewing the 2023 work. He said Alberta Transportation is open to reaching out to municipalities in the area to see what segments of the road are in rough shape.
“I know there's been other issues in projects over the years where it'll get the engineering dollars, it'll get the construction dollars, and then at the end of the day when the dust settles, the project is subpar,” said Dreeshen.
“That's something that we obviously go back to the contractor to make sure that they can fix it - free of charge to taxpayers - and improve it to make it sure that it's of a standard that is acceptable,” he added.
Cyr previously told Lakeland This Week that the contractor for the project was not paid for some of the work due to poor results.
