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Town of Cochrane breaks ground on Highway 1A improvements

“There’s a lot of growth when you live in a desirable location … for us to go from that 15,000 when I moved here to over 31,000 now, that need to take care of the traffic congestion is just going up.”

The Town of Cochrane at long last broke ground on the Highway 1A improvement project on June 25.

The upgrades to the Highway 1A corridor through Cochrane include widening the highway from two lanes to four, realigning Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue, creating new access, parking and turning lanes for Sixth Avenue West businesses and an improved pedestrian network with new sidewalks and multi-use pathways.

The project also includes utility upgrades, installing Alberta Transportation storm water infrastructure requirements, green space and roadway enhancements and Centre Avenue improvements which were previously planned for 2022.

The total budget for this portion of project, from east of Centre Avenue to west of Fifth Avenue, is $13.8 million.

Mayor Jeff Genung applauded Town council, administration, and MLA for Airdrie-Cochrane Peter Guthrie for their efforts in making this project a reality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the height of the pandemic, Genung said, they saw an opportunity to apply for provincial grant funding.

“With controversy and adversity comes opportunity if you are willing to look for it,” he said. “With that adversity came an opportunity with provincial grant funding, which we have put in place on this project to make it become a reality.”

The Town and province have plans to make improvements to the rest of Highway 1A beyond those boundaries as well, according to Minister of Transportation Ric McIver.

“Today’s event signals progress on work to improve Highway 1A, which I know everybody who spends any time around here is probably excited about,” he said. “I know you’re eager for an update on another important piece of work – the interchange at 1A and 22, which, all of this is connected.”

The work on 1A will include expanding the Highway from two to four lanes from east of Big Hill Creek to West of Highway 22, building two new bridges on Highway 1A over Bighill Creek and replacing the bridge on Highway 22 over the Canadian Pacific Railway track and expanding the existing road from two to four lanes for the length of highway between the two projects throughout the town of Cochrane.

Cochrane, McIver said, is growing at a very fast rate, and that growth is one of the driving factors behind the congestion the region's roadways experience. McIver noted the intersection at Highway 1A and Highway 22 sees more than 30,000 vehicles per day and is expected to increase in the future.

“Cochrane is one of the fastest growing communities in Alberta with a population of more than 30,000 people. That is both the opportunity and the problem,” he said. “The population has doubled in the last decade and by any person’s standards, that is a huge percentage of growth.”

That growth is a reassuring sign of economic investment and expansion in Alberta’s rural communities, but it comes at a cost, he said.

“The flip side of that, of course, is more pressure on services and infrastructure,” he said.

The construction of the various projects will be completed in stages, McIver said, to minimize the impacts on traffic.

Genung said he was happy to see the province respond to the Town’s ongoing efforts to advocate for the province and excited to see the province’s commitment to invest in the improvements along Highway 1A and Highway 22.

“Having two provincial highways flow through and intersect in our community creates its own challenges,” he said. “For many years we have been advocating to the province on the need to invest in the provincial highways in our community.

“We’ve shared studies, we’ve shared reports that rank these projects near the top of the list for our region, we’ve shared traffic counts that demonstrate that these highways are well beyond the intended capacity, we’ve shared our frustrations and we’ve shared our concern for public safety. And they’ve listened, and they’ve heard us.”

Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie said he was happy to see the Province invest so heavily in the community of Cochrane. He said the improvements have been needed for a long time.

“Since being elected, by far, the most frequently asked questions and concerns that I hear from constituents... [are] the need to deal with traffic congestion in Cochrane,” he said. “The need to accommodate the influx of travellers continues to be urgent and a growing matter.”

Guthrie said he was happy to see the Province take “concrete actions” with regard to Cochrane’s traffic concerns.

“It’s needed. When I moved here 12 years ago, this was the talk. The talk was, ‘Hey, we’ve got a traffic problem here,’” Guthrie said. “There’s a lot of growth when you live in a desirable location … for us to go from that 15,000 when I moved here to over 31,000 now, that need to take care of the traffic congestion is just going up.”

Guthrie said he expects the situation to get worse in the near term, but the eventual payoff will be worth the wait.

“...I think for the residents here, they’re all going to appreciate where we’re going to end up in a couple of years from now," he said. "We’re going to be so much better off.”

Expansion of Highway 1A from east of Centre Avenue to west of Fifth Avenue is expected to be completed in the fall of this year. The Highway 1A and Highway 22 intersections improvements are expected to begin next year and will be completed in two years’ time.

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