Sunset residents are worried traffic will only get worse, but agree improved access to their community is needed.
Earlier this month the Town received a letter from Alberta Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney indicating that they will spend $10 million to expand the interchange. The expansion of the Highway 1A/22 interchange project will include four-lane access from the interchange to Sunset Boulevard.
The Town identified the 800-metre stretch of road on Highway 22 as one of two 'gaps' in the area's roadway improvements.
While many Sunset residents feel the improvement is much-needed, some people said they are already dealing with long waits in traffic and are worried that bottlenecking traffic will only get worse as construction gets underway.
"It's kind of one of those things where, if you're going out at the same time as all the schools are, we can be backed up all the way to these lights [Highway 22 and Sunset Boulevard] to get into town," said Sunset resident Dana Pasutto, who commutes to Calgary for work during the morning rush hour. "The expansion is definitely going to be appreciated. My only concern is going to be how they're going to manage traffic during the initial closure of the left turn lane [exiting Sunset] - I think we all saw how that one worked out coming down the [Highway 1A] hill into Cochrane."
Pasutto said it is a welcome and necessary addition but might also force a lot of Sunset motorists to take a detour, turning right toward Highway 567 to Lochend Road instead of cutting through town, depending on how well traffic can be managed.
According to the Town's 2019 municipal census, at that time, there were 5,620 people living in the community of Sunset Ridge.
The Town will pay $1.2 million for the expansion, while Melcor Developments will pay $800,000 for the project. Melcor is unable to develop Stage 3 of Sunset's neighborhood plan until an additional left turning lane is added coming off of Sunset Boulevard to Highway 22.
Barbara Kropf, who also lives in Sunset, said she loves the country aspect of Cochrane and is not happy about the idea of more houses being built, but said the access needs to improved.
She added one morning she was stuck in traffic for an hour-and-a-half on her way to town for work. A commute that, according to Google Maps, should take just over 10 minutes.
"It was the first day of school," she said. "So traffic was unusually heavy, but I had to stop at a little community centre in town to call my boss and tell her I would be late. I don't think she believed me until the reports about traffic came out later that day."
Sunset resident Vern Lowe said that they are happy about the upgrade although he and his wife are retired and do not have to travel much in and out of the community. One of their main concerns is how traffic would be managed in the event of an emergency evacuation, during or before construction even begins.
"If there was a fire, a grass fire that sprouted up around Sunset, especially near the Highway - how would we get out?" he said. "We only have one exit."
When they go to the city, Lowe said they will often take the Highway 567 and Lochend Road detour instead of cutting through Cochrane when traffic is bad, same as when they are returning home from that direction.
The province's shovels are expected to hit the ground for the interchange project in spring 2022.
The Town has also received notice that the Province will four-lane from where the Highway 1A improvements end to the start of the interchange project. The entire interchange project now sits in the $80 million range.
