Mayor Peter Brown is hoping the community can help raise awareness about the need for improvements to Airdrie’s transportation network to relieve ongoing traffic congestion – particularly in the form of the planned 40th Avenue overpass.
“We’ve doubled in size in 10 years and we’ve had $2 million invested in our highway corridor – I don’t know how that’s possible, when you look at some of the other investments around the province,” he said.
The need for the overpass was prioritized in a recent regional transportation study conducted by Airdrie and the neighbouring municipalities of Rocky View County, Cochrane and Chestermere , which evaluated potential transportation projects in the area. The City has been proactively developing the infrastructure to accommodate the 40th Avenue overpass, Brown said, but the project is currently on the province’s “unfunded list.”
“Administratively, we’re meeting with the Deputy Minister [of Transportation] to share those findings from the five communities that participated, and we’re going up as one,” Brown said. “That’s great to see, and then we’re really hoping to get a meeting with Minister McIvor.”
However, Brown said, a recent incident highlighted the urgency of the current situation. After an Airdrie resident sent him a photograph of traffic congestion along Highway 2, he took the opportunity at the next City council meeting July 2 to express his concerns to his colleagues – and request the community’s support in seeking funding from the province.
“[The driver was] parked on the side of the highway, waiting to exit Veterans Boulevard – not in the lane, but on the side of the road, with cars whizzing by them at 120 kilometres per hour,” Brown said. “And it really frustrates me, because I don’t want some catastrophic event to occur because [the province has] just been negligent and not supporting our needs.”
Since Brown’s “tirade,” he said, residents have organized a petition requesting the City’s transportation concerns be addressed by the province immediately, which can be found at change.org by searching “40th Avenue and QEII Interchange.”
Comments on the petition support Brown’s statements.
“Too often, I have almost been severely rear-ended because of backup on this highway intersection into Airdrie,” said Katherine Brandt. “We are at over 70,000 population with only two exits into Airdrie.”
Another comment from Devin Cline stated simply, “Traffic is horrendous and dangerous.”
Brown said he is encouraged by the support, as he has already seen first-hand what kind of an impact residents can have on government funding decisions – when he was first elected, he said, citizens pressed the province until new schools were approved for the city.
“I can tell you, the community was responsible for getting us schools at that time,” he said. “We actually got the meeting with the minister, and things started to work. And it was the community that drove that process. Maybe this is what it’s going to take to get this process completed, as well.”
According to Brown, the preliminary work for the 40th Avenue overpass project has already been completed – a detailed design has been developed, and he said the project is “shovel-ready.” The only thing missing, he added, is the funding.
“I have nothing but appreciation and thanks for the people that are working hard behind the scenes to, at least, get everybody to recognize the importance of this interchange and what it means to our community, economically, and what it means to safety, to our community members coming and going,” he said. “I'm really thrilled that some people have taken that to heart and they're pushing hard and spreading the word to the people that need to know, and that’s the provincial government.”
