Highway 55 through the Town of Athabasca will see some repairs and line painting by the end of the construction season, according to Alberta Transportation.
However, Alberta Transportation spokesperson Jeanna Friedley said they contract out the paving and line painting to Carmacks, which means the painting of the lines or filing in of potholes only has to be completed by the end of their contract, which isn’t up until October.
Despite the recent additions of dots on the highway to show traffic where the correct lanes are, there are still vehicles ignoring them.
Friedley said the lines were not painted last fall.
“I think the priority is to paint those lines to give traffic some direction,” she said. “The repairs to the paving work will be done in the due course of the project.”
Alberta Transportation was unsure of the reason for the imperfections of the highway.
“I know that there were some issues with the paving that was done, whether that was a weather or ground issue, I am not certain,” Friedley said. “We have a contract with the contractor to complete work to a certain standard by a certain time.”
Friedley said the contractor has until the end of the contract to fix the road.
“If they have done work or had issues, and it is not up to the standards we expect, then we would expect that those issues would be remedied by the end of the contract date,” she said.
The Highway 813/Highway 55 intersection will be completed by the end of this year’s construction season.
“Carmacks are expected to recommence their construction work in May,” she said. “The remaining work includes backfilling the old Tawatinaw River channel, some grading and paving work for Highway 813 realigned sections, and Highway 55.”
People will notice some major changes this year surrounding the intersection.
“They will be removing the overpass of Highway 813,” she said. “It will be a grade intersection.”
The contractor will also remove the old Tawatinaw River bridge, and will fill in the river channel as well.
“There is other miscellaneous work that will be done,” she said.
The project is on schedule to be completed in October.
