Highway 3 Association in Alberta lobbies for twinning

The group is seeking funding from the Alberta Community Partnership Inter-Municipal Collaboration Grant for a feasibility study.

The Highway 3 Economic Development Association has changed its name to better reflect its objectives—it will now be known as the Highway 3 Twinning Association. — Photo courtesy Kootenay Business

The president of the Highway 3 Economic Development Association, Bill Chapman, is appealing to communities and chambers in southern Alberta to support the organization’s vision for improving Highway 3 and its advocacy efforts for its twinning.

Bill Chapman, a Town of Coaldale councillor, recently spoke at the association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and said that the association has decided on a name change.  It will become the Highway 3 Twinning Association.

“There’s a number of economic groups out there. People just sort of thought, we were duplicating, so we went onto a twinning concept, which really is what the vision is for Highway 3,” said Bill Chapman. He further explained that there is about 324 kilometres of highway from the Crowsnest Pass border to Medicine Hat. “One-third of it is twinned and the other two-thirds is not. There’s still about 220 km yet. Those are possibly the most dangerous parts of Highway 3 now, with the amount of increased traffic both in truck traffic, automobile and recreational traffic,” he stated.

According a keynote speaker at the conference from Alberta Transportation, if Highway 3 in southern Alberta were approved for twinning right now, it would still take up to five to seven years for development to occur.

“We feel we are shovel ready. We see the Crowsnest Pass as really the busiest part of Highway 3 in Alberta, where’s there’s a lot of entrance and exit out of Alberta into British Columbia or going down to the United States,” Chapman said, summing up the initiative.

The newly named group is seeking funding from the Alberta Community Partnership Inter-Municipal Collaboration Grant to update and develop a study for the economic and safety benefits of twinning Highway 3.

There is no indication whether this initiative will be carried forward into British Columbia.  Having a twinned Highway 3 across southern Alberta feeding into a single-laned highway on the British Columbia side could potentially spell problems with a substantial increase in extra traffic congestion.