Alberta stakeholders push for Hwy. 3 expansion

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. (March 29, 2004) — Several community and business interests are pressing the Alberta government to make funding for the twinning of Hwy. 3 in Southern Alberta a top priority.

The Lethbridge Herald is reporting that the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce is presenting such a resolution to the Alberta Chamber of Commerce on behalf of all the Chambers and other interests on the 320-kilometre stretch from Medicine Hat west to the Crowsnest Pass.

However, Alberta Transportation told the newspaper that the proposed twinning project — two lanes from Taber to Fort Macleod at first — isn’t on the docket at this point. The $2 billion fund recently announced by the government for highway construction and maintenance didn’t include any Hwy. 3 work because traffic volumes and collision history show the highway is operating well, a ministry spokesman told the newspaper.

But that hasn’t stopped the Highway 3 Association — a consortium of municipal government, stakeholders, and business owners — from commissioning a study by the University of Calgary, showing the economic benefit to surrounding communities would more than triple the cost for the expansion.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 vehicles use the corridor on a daily basis. That number is expected to double over the next 20 years.

— from the Lethbridge Herald