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Olds, Westcott interchanges cut from AT's 3-year budget

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2012 03:00 am | JOHN GLEESON

Alberta Transportation has dropped the Olds overpass project from its three-year budget, AT officials confirmed last week.

“It’s been pulled, deferred from the three-year program. It’s off the three-year program,” Russ Watts, acting infrastructure manager for the central region, told the Gazette.

A rest stop at the Highway 2/27 intersection and the Westcott/Bergthal Road interchange have also been removed from the three-year project schedule, Watts said.

Asked if other projects took precedence over the Olds overpass due to more serious safety issues, Watts said, “It’s a difficult question to answer. While there’s certainly value to the project, in the budget it had to compete with other projects. A whole pile of factors come into play when the program is being determined. Safety is an important factor, but it isn’t the only factor.” Capacity and expansion of the highway network are also factors, he said.

The current overpass was built in 1966 and has a number of documented safety issues, including the northbound access to Highway 2, where traffic crosses the access lane to turn off the highway.

“The movement toward Red Deer is the one that’s the most uncomfortable movement there,” Watts acknowledged.

The decision not to proceed came down to funding, he said.

“For our region, on the capital side, we saw a decrease. We saw a lot of projects deferred in the central area.”

Last year, AT officials unveiled a roundabout design for the new interchange, and had been working through the detailed design prior to the deferral.

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