The bypass would connect Highway 40 south of Grande Prairie to Highway 43 West at the 43X Bypass (Photo: Shaun Penner)

By Shaun Penner

Southwest Bypass

County of Grande Prairie seeking to add Highway 40X as an economic stimulus project

Jul 20, 2020 | 12:45 PM

The County of Grande Prairie is pushing to see the Highway 40X ring road southwest of Grande Prairie be added to the province’s list of economic stimulus projects.

A motion was passed at last week’s County Council meeting for Council to contact Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA and Minister of Finance Travis Toews to have the project added to the list of proposals. The ring road would see a connection be built between the intersection of Highway 43 and Highway 43X west of city limits, going south to connect it with Highway 40 south of Grande Prairie.

County of Grande Prairie Reeve Leanne Beaupre knows with the amount of heavy traffic on area roads, the completion of such a bypass would not only be beneficial to the County but the City of Grande Prairie as well.

“They [the City of Grande Prairie] really have felt the impact of all the heavy industrial traffic as it moves around the City, or tries to move through the City,” said Beaupre.

“Wapiti Road, if anybody travels on it, has really seen a lot of traffic. This will help alleviate some of those issues. Not only for the City but for those industry members that are trying to get around the City without having to go right through the middle of it.”

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Beaupre says the project is near shovel ready status, as she says Alberta Transportation has completed its consultation with affected landowners and stakeholders and has secured the alignment to get the road built.

“So, it’s just a matter of doing the detailed design and actually investing the money in it to build the infrastructure.”

The ask comes as the twinning of a 19-kilometre section of Highway 40 south of the City is slated to begin in the coming months, and also follows the completion of the Highway 43X bypass from Range Road 63 to Highway 43 West last fall.

With that, the completion of the Highway 40X road would an excellent addition to the expanded infrastructure for Beaupre, as she says during her entire career on Council, finding ways to alleviate traffic on area roads has always been a high priority.

“I’ve been around for 15 years and we’ve been discussing the amount of traffic that travels to try and find its way to Highway 40 because of the large industrial activity that happens in the area.

“So, we’ve been speaking to the province of Alberta and the different ministers over many years about completing some sort of a ring road or heavy haul path for them.”