Province responds to petition re: Range Road 20 access at Highway 16A

PARKLAND COUNTY -- The Alberta Government has responded to a local petition filed in September.

The petition garnered more than 650 signatures and called on the province to halt its plans to close Range Road 20 access at Highway 16A. The petition stated that the Alberta Government's plans to reroute traffic through a new service road connecting to Range Road 15 presented a variety of concerns for local residents.

These concerns related mostly to public safety, as the petition's author Tracy Hucul said that the province's plans failed to address existing safety concerns on Highway 16A. She noted that instead of solving the problem, the move would shift traffic to Range Road 15, and thus create a larger and more dangerous problem on an alternate intersection.

Here's the response from Alberta's Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors:

"Following feedback from the public, MLAs, and input gathered from a town hall meeting in 2023, five improvement options were assessed. As design work progresses, the Range Road 15 intersections at Highway 16A and 16 are both being reviewed to determine what additional improvements could be implemented. A timeline for construction of the service road will be known once all land acquisition has been completed."

The petition also states that the plans ignore the input from residents who previously identified this option as the least favourable during public consultation.