Much needed improvements to a busy intersection south of Airdrie are on the way now that Alberta Transportation and Rocky View County (RVC) have come to a cost-sharing agreement for a project that will convert the current four-way stop at Highway 566 and Range Road 11 – which becomes Eighth Street within the city limits – into a roundabout.
“What this roundabout will do is vastly improve the flow of traffic through that particular intersection,” said Wayne Wood, communications advisor with Alberta Transportation.
According to a report presented during a RVC council meeting Feb. 12, “increased traffic from the growth in nearby commercial areas and residential neighbourhoods has reduced the performance of the intersection.” Approximately 12,000 vehicles cross the intersection each day, Wood said, with traffic peaking during the morning and afternoon.
“There are a lot of times during the day when there are fairly significant traffic tie-ups at that particular intersection as more and more traffic starts to use it,” he said. “There’s some shopping centres nearby, it’s become a commuter route into and out of Calgary and into and out of Airdrie.”
According to Doug Hafichuk, manager of Capital Projects, RVC and the province have agreed to enter into a cost-sharing agreement for the improvement, with the County contributing 25 per cent of the costs to the province’s 75 per cent. RVC council unanimously allocated $900,000 to upgrade the intersection. Alberta Transportation will also oversee the project, with RVC serving in an advisory role.
“Planning and design is nearly complete, and land acquisition and utility relocation will occur this year,” said John Archer, press secretary to the Minister of Transportation.
The project will cost somewhere in the range of $3- to $4-million, Wood said, with construction anticipated to begin in early 2020 and take between four to six months to complete. The improvements will include a duel-lane roundabout as well as some road widening to accommodate extra lanes. Wood said as drivers approach the roundabout in any direction, each road will split into two lanes to enter the intersection.
“There will be some construction work that has to take place on both the range road and the highway,” Wood said.
He was not able to comment if the south branch of the intersection, which is currently a gravel road, would eventually be paved.
Construction of the roundabout will result in detours, Wood added, but as the projects still needs to be tendered, the exact plan to divert traffic is unknown – the eventual contractor will provide a traffic accommodation strategy.
The need for improved traffic measures at the intersection has been known for some time. Alberta Transportation installed stop signs at the intersection Jan. 24, 2018 as an interim measure to manage traffic and address safety concerns until the intersection upgrades could be completed.
Wood added roundabouts are a cost-effective and safe alternative to stop signs or traffic signals, and are estimated to reduce collisions by 40 to 60 per cent.
