New regional ring road 30 years away
Province pondering routes, and may soon protect land for future
Susan Ruttan, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, November 10, 2006
EDMONTON - Long before Edmonton's first ring road is finished, the provincial government is already planning a second one.
The regional ring road is still in its early stages but a map of the proposed route has been circulated among the 21 municipalities in the Edmonton area.
Unlike an earlier version of the route, the latest one bypasses the town of Devon and goes north of Beaumont, instead of south of it.
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Font: ****The new alignment has raised concerns in both towns, although officials are saying little publicly.
"I'm not sure I want a ring road right on the boundaries of Beaumont," Beaumont Mayor Camille Berube said in an interview Thursday.
"Whatever the plans are going to be, we want to be at the table."
The earlier version had the south leg of the ring road on Highway 625, which runs south of Beaumont and right through the Nisku Industrial Park. A source said land around Nisku is now too expensive for the government to assemble for a major highway.
The latest route also goes around the Enoch Cree First Nation, rather than up Highway 60 through Devon and the reserve.
Chris Jardine, chief administrative officer for the town of Devon, said if the ring road were being built tomorrow the town would be upset that it no longer goes through Devon, because the ring road will draw traffic away from the town.
But the road won't be built for 25 or 30 years, Jardine said, and the whole Edmonton region will be much bigger and busier by then.
"So there's still going to be lots of traffic going through this area."
Bart Johnson, spokesman for Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation, said the ring road route has not been approved by government.
"These are conceptual ideas at this point, very early in the process," Johnson says.
"No plan has been endorsed."
He said the province is doing advance planning decades ahead of when the regional ring-road would come into use, just as a corridor of land for the Anthony Henday ring road was protected by the province about 35 years ago.
The Henday is a long way from being completed. The south section of the highway opened last month and other sections are being planned or built.
The northern leg of the highway, however, has not been funded by the provincial government.
An environmental group, the Legacy Lands Conservation Society, is holding a news conference today to raise concerns about the regional ring-road plan.
Any environmental concerns are completely premature, Johnson said.
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© The Edmonton Journal 2006
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