Cochrane’s social media networks and letters sections in the papers rarely take a break from revealing common frustrations that reflect the need to improve infrastructure to keep up with the town’s explosive and relentless growth.
At the pinnacle of these mounting concerns is the intersection at Highway 22 and Highway 1A.
Matching the concern is some level of confusion with respect to the timeline for this provincial infrastructure project that has been jointly championed by NDP MLA Cameron Westhead and Mayor Ivan Brooker.
According to Alberta Transportation public affairs officer Julie MacIsaac even if the project made it onto the 2017 budget, the earliest construction could begin would be sometime in 2018.
“This project is currently on the government’s unfunded capital projects list,” said MacIsaac, adding that this means the intersection has been flagged as a key project, but does not yet have budget dollars allocated toward it.
According to the April 2016 list, there are more than 110 unfunded capital projects; it is currently unknown how many projects are anticipated to make it off the list and onto the next three-year capital plan budget in 2017.
“As part of our commitment to transparency and openness, this is the first year the government has released the Unfunded Capital Projects List, a list of priority projects that have yet to have construction funding allocated. As such, there are no previous statistics for how many projects typically make it onto the next annual budget,” said MacIsaac.
The request for proposals for consultants for the detailed design and tender preparation phase is still open and MacIsaac said they are looking to have a consultant hired by the end of this year.
Following that, the design phase would take around 18 months, which she said was a “standard timeframe for a project of this size”.
Once the design phase is complete, the construction timelines would be established, as would a more exact cost.
The preliminary cost estimate for the intersection is $45 million.
Both Westhead and Brooker are hopeful this project – which made it onto the 2016 radar list – will make the 2017 budget, but there are no guarantees.
Brooker acknowledged the complexity of the intersection design – from traffic volume, to topography and working with CP Rail.
He also acknowledged that the town’s willingness to go ahead with the province’s design for the intersection – rather than a scaled-down version the town had envisioned – would eliminate the need to go back and forth on schematics, enabling the project to move ahead more quickly.
While there has been some question over whether the town would have assumed financial responsibility for the intersection had Cochrane chosen to adopt a city status, Brooker said even if the town had voted to take on that status the intersection is identified as a crucial piece of the provincial highway network. That means a bulk of the responsibility would remain with Alberta Transportation.
“I believe there is a strong case to establish the need to get this intersection on the 2017 budget list, but keep in mind there are other projects also on that list,” said Westhead.
He added that by working with Cochrane town council and meeting with Minister of Transportation Brian Mason, this dual effort is advantageous to the cause.
The province has $34.8 billion allocated for infrastructure projects over the next five years, as per the 2016 Capital Plan.
