By Andrea Nicholl
Pleading and petitions to increase roadway safety at the intersection of Highway 16 and 897 will soon be answered.
While concerns about the deadly Kitscoty corner were presented to the Department of Transportation last summer, Snelgrove says engineering and tendering has finally been completed and crews are now on location.
“The equipment is on site right now. They’ll start moving some dirt and some lines by the end of this week, but it all depends on the weather, you can’t really build roads in the rain,” he said.
“They’re going to move the turning lane that goes north from Lloydminster away from the highway to improve our sight lines (and) they’re going to expand some of the merge lanes especially for trucks to be able to get up to highway speed.”
In addition to the lane way adjustments, Snelgrove says the minister of highways has also received a request to implement a 90 km/h speed limit through the intersection until government is able to construct an overpass.
“We must do anything we can do make it safer,” said the local MLA. “It’s such a sad thing when there are accidents and like a friend of mine said, it’s too big a price to pay for a little mistake.”
The anticipated date for construction completion is Oct. 15, at which time speed reduction signs will also be installed.
“Whatever methods I can use to make it a bigger priority I certainly intend to do,” said Snelgrove.