Westlock County will seek to create a tri-county committee, including Thorhild and Barrhead counties, to address paving Township Road 590.
Discussion about paving the road came up again at council’s May 22 meeting, following several months of discussions about paving the road or portions thereof.
County of Thorhild proposed a joint effort to have the road paved between range roads 224 and 235, a stretch that straddles both Thorhild and Westlock counties, late in 2011.
That discussion has now expanded to having the entire stretch paved from Highway 777 at the west end of Westlock County all the way through into Thorhild.
Council passed motions to create the committee, which would include three councillors from Westlock County, two from County of Thorhild and possibly one from the County of Barrhead, and to then approach the province about having the work done.
Councillors acknowledged, however, that it would be an uphill battle to get it paved, particularly given the fact the road has been a priority for paving for decades, and other roads have taken priority.
In particular, Highway 801 north to Long Island Lake and beyond was a top priority for many years, and paving Highway 661 west into Barrhead is also still a top priority.
“We want to get that done, and get 590 done. Hopefully in one shot,” Coun. Don Savage said. “(Township Road) 590 has been there for 50 years. We could spend a lifetime trying to do something to that road.”
Councillors also discussed the possibility of lobbying the provincial government to designate Township Road 590 as a secondary highway, which would put the road under provincial jurisdiction.
“That’s something the committee will have to decide,” reeve Charles Navratil said.
Having the County of Barrhead involved in the committee is a way impress upon the province the importance of this road to all three counties. The portion of Township Road 590 to the west of Westlock County is already designated as Secondary Highway 654.
Navratil said he had spoken to County of Barrhead reeve Bill Lee about the matter, who said they’re supportive of the effort.
“I talked to Bill at the GROWTH annual meeting, and they’re on side with us as long as we haven’t taken 661 off our priority list,” he said.
Council passed another motion to place traffic counters at three points along the road: a half mile east of Lily Lake Road near the east border of the county, a second one mile east of Vimy, and the third west of Highway 44 near the train tracks.
The idea with the traffic counts is to have hard data to provide to the province about how much the road is actually used, in order to bolster the arguments in favour of having it paved. Once the committee meets, members will try to arrange a meeting with Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec and Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater MLA Jeff Johnson.
“You know what the province needs to do, they need to take a look from Lacombe north and do some work to try to keep their political army straight,” Navratil said.
