Red Deer County council approves grant application for “Little Red Road” improvement funding

Dec 12, 2024 | 10:39 AM

Red Deer County council has endorsed an application to the Local Growth and Sustainability Grant (LGSG), which asks for up to $5.8 million in funding to aid the “Little Red Road” upgrades project.

“Little Red Road” is a nickname given to Township Road 354 in Red Deer County, which runs from the outskirts of Innisfail to Gleniffer Lake. The county has a three-phase upgrade planned for a 14.7 km section of the road that includes widening and repaving it.

“Still two lanes but widening it because it’s a bit of an older standard of a width of a road,” explained Jeremy Graves, fiscal and technical strategy manager for the County. “And, because of the traffic that’s on that road now, whether it’s commercial, industrial or agriculture, farm equipment is getting larger, so they need more room on the road to make it safe for everybody.”

Each phase of the project will complete a new section of the road. Ideally, one phase will be completed per construction season, with phase one taking place in 2025, phase two in 2026 and phase three in 2027.

The $11.6 million project has already been approved as a capital project for the county and will happen regardless of the success of its grant application.

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If the application is successful to the full amount requested, $3.48 million will be funded provincially through the Local Government Fiscal Framework and $2.32 will be funded municipally; whether this is through reserves, or the tax-supported base which is yet to be determined and under council’s discretion.

Graves said they hope to hear whether the application was successful by some point during Q1 of 2025 but cautioned, it’s always hard to tell when that could happen with new grants.

“I think this is an excellent opportunity,” commented Mayor Jim Wood during the December 10 council meeting. “I believe this definitely could have a huge economic impact to our community. Currently, it’s actually a negative economic impact not to have this road done, so I’m looking forward to the possibility of receiving this grant.”

The Local Growth and Sustainability Grant is new to the 2024 budget and provides funding to local governments for infrastructure that:

addresses growth pressures
attracts economic development opportunities
addresses unique or emergent needs in their communities

While the county awaits the province’s response, the project will be put out for tender and a contractor will be determined.

by Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

Red Deer County council approves grant application for “Little Red Road” improvement funding

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