An announcement delivered by Minister Brian Mason of Transportation Friday sent Cochrane officials grinning into the weekend.
An announcement delivered by Minister Brian Mason of Transportation Friday sent Cochrane officials grinning into the weekend. The minister announced that Cochrane’s “nightmare ” Highway 1A/22 intersection has made it onto the province’s list of funded capital projects.
“We are pleased to announce that we are moving ahead with construction of the intersection at Highway 1A and 22, ” said Mason to a room filled with town officials, ministerial staffers and media at the Cochrane ClubHouse and Activity Centre at the Cochrane Ranche.
Construction is anticipated to begin in 2019 and take two to three years to complete. Preliminary estimates hover around $40 to $50 million, a figure that will be better calculated once a successful engineering tender is selected by summer. The ministry said this has the potential to create around 150 jobs.
The province has $29.5 billion marked for capital projects. Of that, $2.1 billion is for roads and bridges. The Official Opposition has criticized the NDP for the record-breaking debt, while the province maintains the expenses are for much-needed and long overdue improvements.
Mason advised the Eagle that while this wasn’t the biggest announcement relating to the budget, it is one of the bigger projects and “$50 million is nothing to scoff at. ”
“It’s a badly needed piece of infrastructure, ” he said, adding that the route was a critical economic corridor for tourism and forestry.
“I feel like I want to hug you, ” laughed an ecstatic Mayor Ivan Brooker, who praised Banff-Cochrane NDP MLA Cameron Westhead for championing the cause.
Brooker applauded the province for moving ahead at a time when around 10 per cent of construction costs could be saved due to the economic downturn.
Mason also gave Westhead a nod, joking that he was “annoying ” enough at “pestering ” the ministry to move the project up the list of infrastructure priorities for the province.
Brooker said the project will include highway twinning, roughly from the Ranche entrance to Heritage Hills and from Sunset Ridge to Quigley Drive. Highway 1A will be an underpass and 22 an overpass with two traffic circles on the north side of 1A.
Coun. Morgan Nagel, who was not able to join fellow councillors Gaynor Levisky, Tara McFadden or Ross Watson for the announcement but who has been vocal about this project, expressed his relief following the announcement.
“This intersection upgrade is great news for Cochrane. Following our meeting with the province this fall, and then the recent budget this spring, I really had my doubts that this project would ever be built. I am thankful that common sense finally prevailed. ”
Coun. Tara McFadden, although thrilled about the news, said she well remembers when the intersection made it off the Sunshine List and onto the list of funded capital projects during her first term on town council - 10 years ago.
She is hopeful this time it won’t be more lip service.
“We got it on onto the three-year capital plan, and then it got pulled, ” said the three-term councillor. “I’ll believe it when I actually see a shovel in the dirt. ”
Immediate social media response indicated a mixture of relief and gratitude, as well as speculation as to whether or not the project will move ahead or if this is a government with tanking popularity grabbing for votes.
