The long-awaited turning lanes into the Westlock County Industrial Park south of town will not be built this year and may be put off until 2022.
County CAO Leo Ludwig reported the news in his written report at council’s March 26 meeting after a recent meeting with a regional manager from Alberta Transportation.
“It’s not that they’re not going to do it, they’re just pushing it back. I expressed some feelings about that and planned to talk to council about requesting a meeting with whomever our new MLA is after the election,” said Ludwig.
The county has been lobbying the province to install the lanes since before 2015 out of a concern for safety, but changes to the plans, disagreements over who should pay and landowner negotiations have set the project behind by years.
Vehicles, including semis, are currently transitioning from a 100 km/h speed limit while turning into the industrial park, with no transition lanes.
Last year, the original plans showed the intent to close two of the three entrances to the industrial park and complete the project as part of the 38-kilometre section of the highway that was paved last year, but the county countered that would not be safe and could lead to problems during an emergency, so plans had to be changed.
“We said that was a safety concern and they agreed to leave two entrances open, but that the project would have to be put off,” said Ludwig.
The work was scheduled for 2018, when much of the highway was repaved, but was then pushed back to 2019 and now it could take until 2022 for the project to commence, he added.
“The priority was to speak to the landowners involved to make sure that was taken care of first and it’s my understanding that has not happened,” said Ludwig.
“That’s rather disconcerting.”
In the meantime, Ludwig said he expects some patching and crack-filling to take place as some sections of the highway are in pretty poor condition.
“I just hope they get it done,” said reeve Lou Hall.
“They’ve told us it’s going to be done and we’re counting on that. The north side of Highway 44 has been done and that’s awesome to drive on and up to (Range Road) 594, it’s awesome to drive on, so they need to finish that sooner as opposed to later.”
