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Safety concerns at busy intersections

Provincial officials say there are no changes planned for Highway 7, despite a growing Foothills population and Okotoks’ planned annexation expected to bring more traffic to the busy road.

Provincial officials say there are no changes planned for Highway 7, despite a growing Foothills population and Okotoks’ planned annexation expected to bring more traffic to the busy road.

Connecting Okotoks to Aldersyde and High River and Black Diamond in the west, Highway 7 carries a high volume of traffic on a daily basis, and poses a number of safety concerns.

MD Coun. Delilah Miller said one of the most treacherous intersections is just outside Okotoks at Highway 7 and Big Rock Trail. She said it’s surprising there haven’t been any major incidents at the intersection to-date, and she’s concerned about what the future holds given local growth plans.

“There are a lot of people turning there, they’re not supposed to pass but they’re passing anyway,” said Miller. “It happens all the time.”

Miller said ‘Do not pass’ signs posted at the intersection a few years ago are too small and rarely adhered to. She said she once was was forced to move her vehicle to block someone from passing on the right while she was stopped for a school bus on the highway.

“He would have hit all those kids,” said Miller. “It’s a treacherous highway with a really bad accident waiting to happen.”

She questioned what else could be done to make the intersection safer.

“Could we put rumble strips, could we put a bigger sign, could we have a flashing yellow there, on Highway 7, warning people,” she said. “We’ll take anything. It’s a really bad road.”

Darren Davidson, Alberta Transportation’s southern regional director, told MD of Foothills councilors last week the highway has been studied on a number of occasions, and the Province intends to take another look at it. However, he said there are no immediate plans for any upgrades.

“We can look into the possibility of some of [Miller’s] suggestions. It may be more of an enforcement issue there,” he said. “There’s not a lot left to do out there.”

The Province studied future twinning of Highway 7 in 2003 and 2009. Both studies concluded the existing intersection at Highway 7 and Highway 782/Southridge Drive on Okotoks’ south side could be upgraded with room for up to six lanes of traffic and ‘slotted’ left-turn lanes.

Okotoks CAO Rick Quail said the studies done previously may be out-of-date, as they assumed the borders of town would be north of Highway 7. With proposed annexation plans including land on the south side of the highway, he said the Town is looking for a review.

“We have a lot of issues and there are discussions we’re wanting to have about Highway 7 with the MD and the Province,” said Quail.

Traffic for the Crescent Point Field House has increased volumes on the already-busy highway, he said. Adding development south of Highway 7 will increase the number of vehicles on the road and will require some changes.

“There is engineering and planning required on Highway 7 to accommodate urban growth,” said Quail. “There will be an increase in volume on Highway 7, and there will be increase in the number of vehicles accessing Highway 2 at Aldersyde.”

Once annexation agreements and hearings have been completed, the Town will proceed with highway and traffic discussions, he said.

Jerry Lau, Alberta Transportation infrastructure manager for the southern region, said intersection upgrades could possibly be done earlier with the Wind Walk development, but Province does not currently have plans to revisit the site.

Okotoks council recently received a letter suggesting the construction of a roundabout at the intersection, citing one built on Highway near the Village of Nobleford.

Lau said a roundabout is not being considered for Okotoks.

“At Nobleford, we kept adding lanes and we were still having collisions occurring,” he said. “So we switched to a roundabout because it inherently has fewer collisions.”

He said in the Okotoks area, the volume of traffic does not justify the use of a roundabout at the intersection, which would come with a price tag of $5 to $6 million.

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