Barnes says government needs to twin Highway 3 right now
By GILLIAN SLADE on August 7, 2019.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com
A local MLA and member of the UCP government says Highway 3 between Medicine Hat and Taber must be twinned now in order to save lives.
A 19-year-old woman died in a head-on crash with a semi-trailer east of Taber on this road on Saturday. The driver of the semi was taken to hospital and released.
“My empathy and sympathy to the families involved,” said Drew Barnes, Cypress-Medicine Hat.
Twinning the highway will save many lives and should be a high priority for his government, said Barnes.
For about seven years Barnes has been on the committee handling requests for twinning Highway 3.
“I have asked many questions (about this) in the Legislature and I have seen other MLAs from southern Alberta ask as well,” said Barnes.
Letters of support for twinning the highway have been received from municipalities along the route, he said.
“The last government provided $10,000 out of the $25,000 cost to update a study (about feasibility and need for twinning) from about five or 20 years ago,” said Barnes. “That’s how long we’ve been talking about this.”
Barnes says successive Alberta governments have had significant deficits in all except one of the last seven years. In the list of priorities this highway has always been passed over.
“It’s time to find a way to do this and the money to do it,” said Barnes. “Under the NDP government this did not score very high on their priority list at all.”
The province faces tough economic times currently but safety is important and doing this highway now would probably be cheaper because of the state of the economy, said Barnes. It would also provide jobs.
“It is absolutely time for the Alberta government and taxpayers to do this project,” said Barnes. “The taxpayers should get more value and we should be able to put hardworking Albertans back to work.”
Michaela Glasgo, MLA for Brooks-Medicine Hat, is out of town and could not be reached for comment.
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