Jared Kassel, manager of development for the Town of Cochrane, presented an update on the Transportation Master Plan (also known as ‘Connecting Cochrane’) at town council Oct. 14.
The presentation outlined what would be presented at the second public engagement session the town is hosting on Connecting Cochrane today (Oct. 16) at the RancheHouse.
Connecting Cochrane seeks to gather feedback to help devise a strategic plan that would address solutions and improvements for all forms of transportation within the town of Cochrane — including pedestrian, bicycle, transit and automobile traffic.
The town contracted Urban Systems to conduct a study that examined the various travel patterns, behaviour and networks for each mode of transportation — highlighting issues such as accessibility and connectivity; intersection congestion; limited river crossing; and highway twinning possibilities.
The intersections at Hwy 1A and Hwy 22 and Railway Street and Fifth Ave. have been identified as the intersections with the highest degrees of congestion; all intersections and roads on provincial roadways are at the discretion and fiscal responsibility of the province.
Coun. Nagel is advocating to scale back the aquatic centre project (and scrap the curling project altogether) in favour of putting municipal dollars toward easing Cochrane’s traffic congestion; so far, his online, unofficial petition has over 700 signatures.
Nagel, considering that half of the provincial budget is consumed with the Calgary ring road project for the next 10 years, questioned what the town would do in the event the province wouldn’t put the intersection at Hwy 1A and 22 back on the books.
“This week administration began outlining what we can expect to come from the Transportation Master Plan in early 2015,” said Nagel, following council.
“The way I see it, there are two possible outcomes — either no major new project recommendations and, therefore, no solution to our traffic problems, or major new project recommendations and, therefore, huge costs.
“Both of these are very concerning outcomes if we continue to grow and are fully committed to a $45M curling and aquatic centre.”
Mayor Brooker and councillors Jeff Toews and Gaynor Levisky, along with town administration, met with MLA Ron Casey in Canmore recently to discuss infrastructure (roads) among other concerns for the growing town of Cochrane.
“We reiterated the concerns over the intersection at Hwy 1A and 22 and we were asked by Ron Casey to draft a letter to the Minister of Transportation,” said Toews, acknowledging public concern recently expressed over the congestion at the intersection — particularly during peak traffic times and long weekend traffic.
Toews said that a letter has already been sent to Minister Wayne Drysdale and that the town is encouraging Cochranites to write letters/emails and send copies to both Casey and Drysdale.
He said that while the intersection was not in the province’s three-year plan, alternative solutions were being discussed to ease traffic congestion.
“We can’t have a knee-jerk reaction…anything we do, we have to do it right,” said Toews.
Coun. Ross Watson brought up the traffic congestion issues, referring to CP Rail’s stipulation that only three railway crossings can be operational within a town as ‘draconian’.
Mayor Brooker and all councillors agreed that improving road congestion within the town of Cochrane and that investigating both short and long term solutions to aid the flow of traffic is a top priority.
Following the public engagement sessions being held today (afternoon and evening time slots), administration would compile feedback and comprise capital master improvement plans and set a date for a third public engagement session in two to three months.
