NEWS FILE PHOTO The Alberta Motor Transport Association has made the twinning of Highway 3 one of its top five priorities to facilitate the flow of commercial goods transported by road in this region.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
The Alberta Motor Transport Association has made the twinning of Highway 3 one of its top five priorities.
There are about 200 kilometres of the highway that are not twinned and advocates have suggested this needs to be addressed in the interests of safety and to facilitate the flow of commercial goods transported by road. The project has been particularly encouraged to handle continued growth in the region.
“Just this year we saw the opening of one plant producing 735 million pounds of product annually. That’s product that needs to be transported so there is a need for proper infrastructure to support increased capacity. Safety for commercial drivers and the motoring public is paramount,” said AMTA president Chris Nash.
Alberta Transportation was expecting two studies to be completed last fall – one for the functional planning of segments of the highway between Taber and Burdett, and one for Sentinel to Pincher Creek.
Drew Barnes, MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, says he is disappointed this project does not appear to be a high priority for the government.
“That’s unfortunate and that’s wrong,” said Barnes. “All too often we see all of the transportation and infrastructure money going to the two big metros and what we’re looking at here in Medicine Hat is an economy that needs as much support as possible. Our people are entitled to as much safety as possible.”
Brad Beerling, logistics manager with Meridian Manufacturing Inc., says there are drivers with loads up to 18 feet wide and 100 feet long, a pilot vehicle ahead and an escort behind.
“With only a few designated passing sections between Taber and Medicine Hat, and most of them not being very long, it is very difficult to pass our units as well as the pilot and escort in one area,” said Beerling. “Our drivers witness drivers passing us in many areas where it is unsafe to do so.”
Other challenges include mobile homes and other over-dimensional loads that travel at various speeds, including some quite slowly. Depending on the time of year there is also slow-moving farm equipment sharing the highway.
“With limited passing opportunities this leaves very long convoys of impatient drivers that are either going to take risks they shouldn’t or just add to the delays in each direction,” said Beerling.
The delays impact businesses that depend on vehicles transporting materials for processing or dispatching of product, he said.
An 18-year-old woman was killed in August in a fiery head-on collision with a semi-trailer east of Taber.
In 2004, a 19-year-old young woman died on the same highway. Her mother initiated a campaign at the time to have it twinned.
The Highway 3 Twinning Development Association – established to promote and work with provincial and federal governments to twin Highway 3 – says numerous studies have been done and 13 sections of the road identified.
“Highway 3 from Medicine Hat to the B.C. border is a critical pipeline for moving an increasing number of commodities to processors and the conduit for transporting the final products to market,” said president Bill Chapman.
Barnes says the government is eight months into its mandate giving the various ministries an opportunity to establish priorities. He also says budgets need to be spread across the province rather than concentrating on Calgary and Edmonton.
