Local construction companies are concerned that a new median installed on Highway 2A just south of that highway's intersection with Highway 27 has made the roadway too narrow for large vehicles or trucks carrying wide loads.
Crews are completing the concrete median, located near an entrance to the new Pomeroy Inn and Suites and the north part of Olds College's campus, and Jeannine Richardson, secretary-treasurer for Richardson Brothers Ltd., said her company's larger trucks used for moving heavy equipment can no longer travel along Highway 2A south of Highway 27 because the median has made the roadway too narrow.
“There's no room,” she said.
She added since the same trucks can't turn left or right at the intersection of the highways due to their size, and because they can no longer travel along Highway 2A to and from the Highway 2 interchange at Didsbury, the trucks are forced to go all the way to Innisfail to enter and exit Highway 2.
The trucks then have to come back along Highway 2A through Bowden to access the company's compound northeast of Olds, costing an extra hour of personnel time and an extra hour of vehicle time, Richardson said.
Dustin Rauw, a dispatcher with Olds' Netook Construction, also said the median will make it difficult for his company's larger equipment and trucks with wide loads to travel southbound on Highway 2A from Highway 27 because the gap between the divider and the trees on the road's west side is too small.
“That is tight,” he said. “Any over-dimension load is going to have a hard time.”
Trent Bancarz, an Alberta Transportation spokesman, said the ministry is aware of concerns about the median but he's “surprised” the companies are finding the roadway too narrow.
“We're a bit surprised by it because the travel lanes are 4.2 metres wide, which accommodates the vast majority of vehicles out there,” he said. “This must be very large equipment that can't, I guess, get by there. Because 4.2 metres, that's quite wide. Even things like cranes should be able to fit widthwise.”
The median is meant to help traffic flow at the Highway 2A entrance into the hotel and college and provides dedicated turning lanes that allow “people to make a safer turn” onto campus, Bancarz said.
He added he could only speculate on what could be done to address the concern about the roadway but said the ministry will “try to address it.”
