(Bryn James)

By Sheldon Spackman

high-collision intersection

Town of Penhold urging province to expedite roundabout project

Sep 29, 2020 | 3:26 PM

The Town of Penhold has sent an urgent request to Alberta Transportation in hopes of expediting work on a new roundabout at the community’s busiest intersection.

With a large amount of motor vehicle collisions taking place at the intersection of Highway 2A and Highway 42 over the years, a letter was sent to Transportation Minister Ric McIver last week to see construction on the planned roundabout get going as soon as possible.

Mayor Mike Yargeau says the Town is hoping to have some involvement in the process.

“Alberta Transportation said that that intersection is scheduled for an upgrade but that’s really all we know,” he explains. “It’s a problem intersection. This year we’ve had probably more issues than we’ve had in the past few years.”

Yargeau points out that anyone whose been out camping in the areas around Caroline for example, knows exactly what safety concerns exist in that location.

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“There’s a lot of people heading out on the weekends and a lot of that traffic comes right through Penhold, so we’ve had our fair share of accidents,” says Yargeau. “We talk a lot about other intersections in our constituency and I think it’s important that we start talking about this one.”

Yargeau estimates about half a dozen collisions at the intersection of Highways 2A and 42 already this year.

“When you look at the intersection, there’s clear sight lines in every direction, it’s fairly straight forward and I think it just comes down to traffic volume,” he suggests. “The accidents happen at high traffic times like Fridays, Sundays, anytime we have a large amount of people headed out west or coming through town at the same time. A lot of people that live in Innisfail use Highway 2A rather than taking Highway 2, so we get a lot of traffic coming through there or heading to Red Deer for work or for whatever else they’re doing.”

Yargeau says the province is aware that the intersection has been a problem for a long time, so he’s hoping to see action on it fairly soon.

“We’re spending money on other intersections in the province, so let’s look at this one too,” he exclaims. “This is something that we think is important for safety, so hopefully we can get some solid answers and some clear direction on when this is going to happen.”