Engineering for Scotford interchange gets $750,000

BY JOHN MATHER Transportation and Corridors

Minister

Devin Dreeshen gathered local politicians from around the region to reaffirm the province’s commitment to build an interchange at the intersection of Highway 15 and Secondary Highway 830 Apr. 24.

“I have to give a shout out to the MLAs who have advocated for this,” said Dreeshen. Local MLAs Jackie Armstrong Homeniuk, and Nate Glubish from Sherwood Park.”

“They have advocated for this project and in our spring budget we got more than $700 million for transportation in this budget than in the previous year.”

He said people in the area know the Highway 15 and Secondary Highway 830 was an extremely important intersection.

“With the trains moving through Scotford and the traffic volumes some people say they can be caught at the intersection for more than an hour during peak periods,” said Dreeshen.

“It is located next to the CN Rail Scotford Yard and has heavy loads transporting goods to and from the Shell Scotford complex,” he added.

He then announced that the government was moving ahead with the engineering work and design work for the interchange upgrades and $750,000 was committed to the project for this year.

“Improvements to this intersection will ease traffic flow and bring improvements to both area communities and to industry,” he said.

“And we recognized strong infrastructure is needed to attract investment and growth to the region,” he added.

Fort SaskatchewanVegreville MLA Jackie Armstrong Homeniuk said the announcement was “great news for the region.”

“Improving this intersection will save time and money for both commuters and industry,” she added. “This project will also promote future development in the region.”

She added it would also add to the provincial economy since the region is home to the Alberta Industrial Heartland.

“It is critical we have the highway infrastructure in place to help the growth in this region,” she added.

She also mentioned several other transportation projects in the region which had been approved.

“Thank you to the Alberta government for making this much needed investment in the future of this intersection,” said Strathcona County Mayor Rod Frank.

He added the project was the result of the area municipalities including Strathcona, Fort Saskatchewan, Lamont County and Bruderheim working collaboratively together to achieve success in the Alberta Industrial Heartland.

Dreeshen said he couldn’t say what sort of interchange would be built.

“There will be an open town hall so the engineers can get local input,” he said. “We want to make sure when the interchange is completed the trains can do their thing and the truck traffic and commuters can also do their thing.”

He added the engineering would take up to a year and then it is a matter of getting full funding for construction and having the project placed on the capital plan.

“That can take a year or two so it should be in the two to four year range, but obviously we want to build something as fast as possible,” he said. “But we have to make sure it works for all the stakeholders.”

Dreeshen wouldn’t speculate on when the twinned section of Highway 15 would be extended out to Highway 45. The current twinned section of the highway ends just beyond where the planned interchange will be built.

“We’ll have to see,” he said. “We got $700 million in additional money in this year’s budget. There are constant priorities and things can change.”

He said there were many projects already in the capital plan that had to be completed.