The town held its second public engagement session on the Cochrane Transportation Master Plan — also known as ‘Connecting Cochrane’ — Oct. 16 at the RancheHouse.
It was a successful lunch hour turnout of Cochranites looking to get some answers from town planning and engineering on the key areas of concern for transportation in town — including pedestrian, bike, transit and automobile traffic; a second public session was held that evening.
Men of Vision Hall was decorated with poster boards summarizing the key findings by town-contracted Urban Systems, with Urban Systems and town administrative staff milling about to address concerns.
People were encouraged to voice their opinions on traffic/transportation problems and solutions by writing them on sticky notes and attaching them to a white board; they were also asked to fill out comment cards on their way out.
“I heard a lot of questions with regards to land-use planning in Cochrane,” said Marcia Eng, transportation engineer with Urban Systems.
“The transportation concerns were mainly along the highway (intersection at Hwy 22 and Hwy 1A), as well as key intersections in town (Fifth Ave. and Railway St.).”
Eng said people seemed curious about how the town plans to address the explosive growth in Cochrane (10 per cent in 2013) and that people are excited about the future opening of the Bow River Bridge (moved up from 2019 to 2018 by council), with many wondering why this river crossing wasn’t addressed years earlier.
While town council is advocating for the Hwy 22 and 1A intersection to be put back on the provincial priorities list, Eng said “we are working with Alberta Transportation and we are setting up a committee to work toward figuring out how to implement improvements”.
Mac Elder has lived in Cochrane for 22 years, calling the community of West Valley home — noting the congestion in his community, which is home to three schools.
Elder said he was encouraged to see the work being done through ‘Connecting Cochrane’ but questioned why it has taken the town so long to address some of the concerns around transportation networks in Cochrane — including the Bow River Bridge.
He also suggested that the town works with CP Rail to modernize the stipulation of only three railway crossings in town; Elder said that perhaps an underpass crossing at the tracks west of the community of West Valley could be explored in the future.
Carol Parkin has lived in Cochrane for 31 years and lives in the community of Glenbow.
“Traffic is horrible in this town,” said Parkin, reiterating Elder’s concern with the Bow River Bridge.
“If the town does the things they say they’re going to do, things will be great…I feel that the developers (and builders) should be held more responsible than they have been — it’s unconscionable that they haven’t put more toward the bridge.”
Both Parkin and Elder said they felt Cochrane did not need a new curling rink facility (as part of the $45M aquatic/curling club facility council recently gave the green light on).
Jared Kassel, manager of development for the town, said he was pleased with the turnout and that his department would host a third public engagement session in early 2015, with the intention to go before council by February 2015.
Kassel stressed that while roads and automobile congestion tends to take up the spotlight, ‘Connecting Cochrane’ is focusing on all forms of transportation, roads, pathways, sidewalks, connectivity and community accessibility in order to devise a strategic plan.
Traffic studies began in the fall of 2013.
Council approved an increase of $71,235 to develop a transportation master plan in June; the total cost of the plan has increased from $180,000 to $251,235 due to an increase in project scope.
