By Liam Verster

HWY 43X to HWY 40

County of Grande Prairie Council advocating for next major highway project

Mar 24, 2021 | 12:39 PM

With the twinning of the first 19-kilometres of Highway 40 slated to start in the spring, the County of Grande Prairie is now advocating for the next big highway project in the municipality.

Reeve Leanne Beaupre says Council is advocating for an extension of the Highway 43X Bypass that would connect with Highway 40 at the bottom of Richmond Hill, southwest of the city.

Beaupre says the amount of traffic that goes from the highway through the City of Grande Prairie is high, and that a planning study from several years ago showed there was a better alternative route around the city.

“Which would go from Highway 40 to the west and link up with the intersection at the bottom of Richmond Hill. So, it would create a bypass basically on the west side of the City of Grande Prairie, which allows for traffic that, whether it’s industrial traffic or heavy traffic or just traffic trying to bypass the City of Grande Prairie to get south of the city, or north of Grande Prairie.”

Beaupre says they are working on arranging conversations with the local MLA’s in the near future to push for this project.

“We have had these conversations in the past, and I think these conversations are important to continue just for the effectiveness of the upgrades to Highway 40.”

The work to twin Highway 40 is slated to start in the spring, and be completed by the fall of 2023.

READ MORE: Highway 40 twinning construction slated to begin in spring

Meanwhile, the tender is out for the paving of a 10-kilometre stretch of Highway 724 north of LaGlace.

Beaupre says the road, which is currently gravel and in need of some repairs and upgrades before being paved, is an important route.

“There’s lots of industry and lots of resource traffic that uses the 724 linkage into Saddle Hills.”

The Highway 724 work is expected to be completed this construction season.