62HWY 43X near Range Road (photo by Shaun Penner)

By Shane Clausing

Bypass Overpass

Discussions continuing on Range Road 62 flyover

Aug 26, 2020 | 5:30 AM

The County of Grande Prairie is continuing discussions regarding a potential flyover that would cross Range Road 62 over Highway 43X, which would provide easier access to the Crosslink County Sportsplex and future development in the surrounding area.

County Council was presented with updated drawings from engineers of the planned flyover during a council meeting on Monday.

In the updated drawings presented to Council, the flyover included the addition of sidewalks for pedestrians, as well as a clearer picture of what the build out of the surrounding area could look like.

Also presented was the requirements that are needed for approval to have the flyover cross Highway 43X.

“The project has been on our long term, transportation master plan for a while now,” said Reeve for the County of Grande Prairie Leanne Beaupre.

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With the project being on Council’s long-term plan list, during Monday’s meeting, Council directed Administration to contact the landowners of the area of the proposed project and talk about acquiring the land for the right-of-way.

Beaupre said that if the design can become finalized and the project can become “shovel ready”, it could be added to the list of the Province of Alberta’s projects that are being fast tracked as part of the government’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan.

According the engineers, even if the project wasn’t to go ahead as soon as possible because of funding shortages, it wouldn’t need much work to get it back on track.

Beaupre says it’s important to have plans ready for whenever funding could become available.

“Whether it’s provincial or federal funding, (we) have that (project) sitting on the shelf ready to go when we have been requested to provide those shovel ready projects.”.

During the meeting, the engineering firm did tell County Council that the design of the project does have longevity in mind, incase it takes extra time to get funding for the project.

Council couldn’t provide an exact timeline for when shovels could be put into the ground, but Beaupre says if approved, the flyover would be beneficial to the community.

“In the future some of those other lands will have the potential for future development as well. It really does accommodate for traffic movement in the future.”

“Having the detail design ready and available is important to make sure that we achieve the criteria for shovel ready projects.”