Athabasca town council has come out officially in support of a highway bypass.
Last Tuesday, council passed a motion that Mayor Roger Morrill Roger Morrill address the problem of heavy truck traffic through Athabasca’s downtown core with Alberta Transportation.
“In order for anything to happen, the first step has to be that we ask Transportation to address the problem for us, and come up with a plan for a bypass to get rid of the truck traffic through our downtown core,” said councillor Lionel Cherniwchan.
Once the letter gets to Transportation, they will hopefully get an engineering firm to study the issue and come to council with some options, said Cherniwchan.
Councillor George Hawryluk said he recalled a discussion where it was stated that a count of vehicles going through the intersection would have to precede any action taken.
“They (Transportation) do have those numbers now, and the numbers were 2,000 from the south per day and 5,000 from the east,” said Morrill.
Morrill said he knew of a traffic count, but could not cite the date of study.
Councillor Paula Evans said her recollection was of a study done three years ago.
Morrill also mentioned a conversation with the minister where intersection improvements were to be considered.
However, Evans was not in support of the idea of intersection improvements.
“First of all, I don’t think intersection improvements are worth anything to us, and secondly, I would like to know the year of the traffic count,” she said.
Evans asked CAO Doug Topinka if a town-conducted traffic study would be recognized.
Topinka responded by saying Alberta Transportation, or someone whose profession is traffic studies, would have to carry out the task.
Regardless of the traffic study, council agreed the mayor should write a letter to the Minister of Transportation, requesting alleviation of the heavy traffic through the center of Athabasca.
