JULIE BERTRAND
Independent Reporter
Things are finally moving in the Highway 56 realignment file.
Delcan, the engineering and consultancy firm in charge of the project, presented the realignment options to town and county council during February.
After years of waiting for the government to move, Greg Switenky, assistant CAO, is happy to see things progress.
“Many people had just given up on the idea that the province is ever going to do it,” says Switenky.
“At least, at this stage now, we’re seeing the prep work by the province, doing this for us.”
However, it is the provincial government who will ultimately make the realignment decision, and the council can only hope to help influence that decision.
“They’re the ones driving the bus. We’re sort of no different from the public at the open house,” explained Switenky.
“They’ve just given us the benefit of seeing it a little bit in advance of the public. This is all they, and very little we.”
Since the council now knows which area will be used for the realignment, they will accommodate that in their planning documents.
Nonetheless, they need more details before they let developers subdivide that northern area of town.
“We don’t know where the road is supposed to eventually go and we have these big planning documents that bind us as to where houses can go and where commercial can go,” says Switenky.
“The highway needs to finish this piece of a puzzle for us so that we can have clarity.”
Council hopes Delcan will correct the three issues that the alignment options have.
“We want a complete redraw of the curve and the intersection with Tower Road. There’s got to be a better solution than the one they’ve drawn up there,” says Switenky.
There are also not enough intersections on the new Highway 56.
“We want to address drainage in the whole area because we currently have some drainage issues along Tower Road” says Switenky.
Council and the residents should know more after the Highway 56 Open House, which will be held tomorrow, Thursday, March 3 at the Stettler Rec Centre, from 5 to 9 p.m.