Alta. road dubbed Death Highway
Jim Farrell, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, December 28, 2007
EDMONTON -- Lucille Cloutier says her brother would still be alive if the road to Fort McMurray, Alta. had been twinned in the past year.
"Last year they only put one construction crew on to work on 240 kilometres of road," said Cloutier, whose 41-year-old brother Guy was killed Nov. 8 while trying to avoid an out-of-control vehicle. "If they had put 10 road crews on the job, it would be twinned by now and my brother would still be alive."
Between 2001 and 2005, a total of 25 people were killed on Highway 63. Fourteen have been killed so far in 2007.
The growing toll on what has been dubbed Death Highway has critics asking why Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation didn't begin twinning the 240-kilometre route a decade ago.
"There just aren't the crews and equipment available to do that entire stretch in one fell swoop and still do the $2 billion in road construction that's going on in other areas of the province," said Jerry Bellikka, a spokesperson for Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation.
Added to that, there is already a labour and equipment shortage in the Fort McMurray area. High wages and the difficulty of constructing roadways over muskeg makes every kilometre of construction two-and-a-half times as expensive as in the south, he said.
The best short-term solution is convincing drivers to slow down and exercise caution, Bellikka says.
"One of the problems we have is that it's a long stretch of road, it's a long drive and a lot of people when they get off shift want to get back to Edmonton in a hurry. But one of the things you have to ask is if getting there a half-hour ahead of time is worth your life."
Twinning wouldn't prevent the majority of Highway 63's collisions, according to statistics compiled by the RCMP showing that 53.9 per cent of the collisions have been vehicles hitting wildlife, said Bellikka.
Some people -- including former premier Ralph Klein -- have pointed out the dearth of planning for the current oil boom and the resulting infrastructure gap. Oil industry watchers have said that a decade ago, when oil cost $20 per barrel, few people could have predicted the size of the boom.
(Edmonton Journal)
