Hoses stretch along Sierra Boulevard on Monday afternoon for an area house fire, stopping traffic in and out of the south-end community. The incident is raising new debate about the layout of the community that can only be accessed by vehicles from an intersection of Southridge Drive, Strachan Road and Sierra Boulevard.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Long-standing complaints about the one-way-in, one-way-out setup in the south-end community of Saamis Heights are cropping up again after firefighters had to shut down a portion of Sierra Boulevard on Monday.
Lines pumping water from a hydrant across the busy road were required to fight a fire on nearby Sunrise Court, near the intersection with Southridge Drive.
That essentially stopped traffic in both directions of the four-lane, divided roadway. Because traffic was directed off Southridge Drive, school bus routes were thrown into disarray.
City planners say the roadway network isn’t ideal, but the result isn’t from poor planning but private sector development (which was to include a second outlet) going bankrupt 10 years ago.
“The timing is based on private developers,” said Kent Snyder, general manager of planning services. “The land (for a another road) is privately owned. The city isn’t the barrier to capacity.”
Saamis was drawn up by the city land development office in the early 2000s, and by 2009, private builder Medican planned to build the Cimarron subdivision south of the site. That included an extension of Sierra Boulevard, which would have rejoined Southridge Drive as a second access point, but the project was shelved when Medican entered receivership.
“It’s intended to have more connections,” said Snyder. “The intent is to have a robust roadway network with multiple connections, but when development occurs south of Saamis Heights.”
Traffic was closed in both directions for about an hour on Monday.
Emergency management officials say police cars, fire trucks and ambulances were never cut off from entering the community in case of a second emergency deeper in the community.
“Obviously in an ideal situation you’d want multiple access points, but we plan for these types of circumstances,” said Merrick Brown, the city’s director of emergency management. “We have strategies to get people out, including by mass transit and even by foot.”
When Saamis Phase 7 was brought online, emergency vehicle access points were built into the pathway system.
At the time, city land department officials told the News that it would cost more than $10 million to takeover the private subdivision and build the roadway extension itself.
