Many Sundre and area residents who anticipated a comprehensive presentation by Alberta Transportation representatives on potential changes to Main Avenue came away disappointed.
A public open house that was held at the Sundre Legion on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 4 brought out plenty of residents. While Alberta Transportation infrastructure engineers attended, the function was more of an informal question- and-answer session as opposed to a detailed presentation breaking down several potential options to improve pedestrian safety while maintaining traffic flow on Sundre's downtown corridor.
"Somebody should stand up there and explain it to us," said Sundre resident Nolan Blatchford, who attended the meeting with his wife Susan.
Without an official presentation, the information provided at the open house was more confusing, agreed Susan.
And although Nolan acknowledged there's a legitimate safety concern on Main Avenue between the bridges, he also said there are better places to spend money considering the current economic climate.
"We don't need roundabouts in a small town like Sundre," he said, referring to a proposed option by Alberta Transportation to trial mini traffic circles. He recalled the public's confusion when Main Avenue was changed to four lanes from two in 2008. It took months for people to get accustomed to the change, during which period many motorists continued to park in the outside lane.
Bergen resident Lance Greer, who works in the trucking and logging industry, said he needed to "digest" the information he gathered talking with Alberta Transportation engineers. However, he feels the current traffic flow on Main Avenue is adequate as it is, and was concerned some of the options presented might cause more problems than they solve. Although the engineers said big rigs would be able to navigate through mini roundabouts, he had doubts.
All that said, he agreed town officials and the public have a reasonable concern about the sidewalks being in such close proximity to the road.
"What the answer is, I don't know. That's what they're here for. That's why we're all here," he said.
Mike Beukeboom, Sundre and District Chamber of Commerce president, said he was really impressed by the large turnout and encouraged by the effort Alberta Transportation officials have put into its proposed options.
"It's a big concept for the community."
With the slowdown in the oil industry, the time is ideal to trial a pilot project on Main Avenue. Fewer large rigs are coming through, so it's a good opportunity to see how a lighter flow of trucks would handle any changes, he said.
But improving Main Avenue is also a baby step, and long-term needs must be kept in mind, he added.
Eventually, a secondary route for industrial traffic, which would mean building another bridge, will be required. Such an undertaking is more than a decade away, but it's time to start the conversation, he said.
However, the Alberta Transportation engineers were only discussing the proposed changes to Main Avenue and were mainly seeking input from the community.
"We're looking for public feedback," said Kirk Kwan, an engineer intern with Alberta Transportation.
"The turnout was great, actually. We were really pleased," said Stuart Richardson, infrastructure manager with Alberta Transportation.
He acknowledged there was confusion over the public open house and that people had expected a presentation.
"A lot of people were upset that there wasn't a presentation and that it was more of an informal session."
Still, the Alberta Transportation representatives received more than 70 surveys from residents who offered feedback on which options they preferred. Among the proposals were to leave Main Avenue as it is, a three-lane configuration with the centre lane reserved for left-turning traffic, and mini roundabouts, which reduce speed and eliminate the need to turn left into on-coming traffic ó a common cause of collisions.
There seems to be a roughly 50-50 split on roundabouts, said Richardson. Some people like the idea, but others are diametrically opposed to it. However, the general consensus is that something needs to be done to address the safety issue, he added.
"Whether roundabouts will be that option remains to be determined."
Should that be the option selected, it would, like anything else simply be a matter of people having to get used to it, he said, adding there would be public engagement sessions to educate people about navigating through traffic circles.
But Alberta Transportation officials do not want to do anything the public does not want, he stressed.
"That's what we tried to get across" during the public open house, he said.
As it is, Highway 27 works for Alberta Transportation, but officials recognize the pedestrian safety issue, which is why efforts were made to come up with some options, he said, adding the engineers don't have any particularly favourite approach in mind.
That was the point behind the open house, to find out what's acceptable to the public, which will live with any changes made. But any work done will be on a temporary trial period to see how the changes work out, he said.
"If we did something and it didn't work, or it just creates more issues, we'd just go back to what it is now," he said, adding residents don't need to worry about a long-term impact if the pilot project doesn't work out.
The next step is for Alberta Transportation officials to come up with recommendations based on the comments submitted by residents, he said.
"We don't want to build anything no one wants."
Following that, they'll be able to work out a cost estimate for the pilot project, but since there currently is no funding available, it's unlikely anything will happen this year, he said.
