OLDS — Projects to install traffic lights, etc. at Highway 27 and 70th Avenue, and a traffic roundabout just south of the cemetery are virtually complete; just some clean-up remains for both this spring.
Operations director Scott Greico made that announcement during town council’s Feb. 7 policies and priorities meeting.
Last spring, town council allocated $1.84 million for the traffic light project and $6.39 million for the roundabout project.
Greico said turning lanes have been created at the intersection of Highway 27 and 70th Avenue. He said traffic lights there are now “in and completely installed and programmed.”
“We still have some remaining clean-up on the project and the final portion of that clean-up will commence in the spring,” he said.
“The project is mainly completed and it’s on budget.”
Lights were installed there around the end of the year.
The roundabout at 68th Street, just south of the cemetery along Highway 2A was constructed last fall.
Greico noted that barricades are still there.
“There’s a significant amount of snow and ice buildup around that traffic circle so that will remain blocked and we are working with operations and our engineer, looking at when the proposed opening can proceed,” he said.
Greico said in this case as well, final clean-up of the site is expected to occur this spring.
When the two projects were first proposed, some residents expressed alarm about the town spending big sums of money for such projects.
However, town officials said the two projects had been on the radar for some time and were being partly funded by provincial dollars.
They were told if they didn’t use that government grant money when anticipated, they stood to lose it.
