During the election, I heard from several candidates that the pedestrian crossing at the end of Quigley Drive across to Heartland was planned for the near future. Evidently the budget for it was planned. I thought that was a good thing. It gives the people in Heartland a better access to the trail system along the river. I also thought, thank goodness it is only for pedestrians, because a car crossing would be devastating for the residents of Quigley Drive, especially at the west end where the road is not as wide as it is at the east end. However, in the Eagle on Nov. 9 under “Foundation for our Future” on page 11, for the first time I saw that around 2020-21 there is a vehicle crossing planned for that location. Surprise! I wonder if Quigley residents noticed this? I had no idea that was in the wind, although I might have missed something reported in the newspaper in the past. Of course, administration and council will say an alternate route out of the district is needed, and due to the upgrade of the Highway 22 and 1A intersection that is where the traffic will go. I struggle with both of those points. Regarding the first, many years ago the approvals for West Valley and West Terrace were given without any such secondary access. What has changed to make this an issue now? On the second point, I don’t agree. If I was coming home from my job in Calgary and travelling north on Highway 22, I would definitely choose to turn on Quigley and zip in the back way to Heartland rather than go through the significant intersection and inherent delay that will exist at Highway 1A, regardless of the promised improved traffic flow. The 1A intersection will be better, but it looks like we could have double the volume of cars given our planned growth in the next five years. There is one other possibility that has some logic and that is that the railway road crossing could be made only accessible to emergency vehicles. This is done in at least one place I know of in Calgary.
Jack Blair
