Anticipated early May start for construction at Highway 1A and Highway 22
A map of the new Highway 1A and 22 interchange, anticipated to start construction in May 2023. (Photo courtesy Alberta Transportation / Town of Cochrane)
With the groundwork at Highway 1A and 22 laid out last summer, the town is waiting on word from the contractor for an anticipated start date in early May.
“I would anticipate this summer, you would see equipment throughout this area,” said Drew Hyndman, the executive director of development and infrastructure services for the town in an interview.
Hyndman also spoke about the town’s plan to focus on communicating with the community during construction and providing updates on the project.
In terms of impacts for drivers, Hyndman was clear that there may be some detours during construction, but more exact measures would be known once the contractor is on site.
“The traffic accommodation strategies that are going to be utilized by the contractor are some of the key aspects we’ll be looking for and communicating out,” he said, “We see this as a step forward, but there will be some steps to get to the final product that will impact residents.”
“There has been a tremendous amount of work in reaching this point,” said Hyndman.
The work put in by all the various stakeholders, including the province, the intergovernmental relations team in Cochrane, Mayor Jeff Genung, Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie, and more, all culminated in December last year, when the Alberta government issued the tender to begin construction this spring.
Last year, Town of Cochrane construction crews oversaw the relocation of pipelines, an archeological dig at the Historic Cochrane Ranch (east) side of the project, coordinating with the Cochrane & District AG Society and CP Rail, all in preparation for the province to step in this spring.
In an interview earlier this year, Genung spoke about the goal being to maximize and leverage the province while they’re working on the project, he said, “It’s been a lot of work and it’s not even our project.”
Hyndman spoke about how they were avoiding “double handling” material when moving the pipeline/utility lines, meaning that much of the that soil was moved in preparation for the interchange.
Completion of the interchange is expected to be fall 2025, at which point Hyndman said there may be minor landscaping work remaining.
Design of the interchange was a provincial decision, as it’s part of the provincial highway network. It’s classified as a partial cloverleaf a/b design, which means there are two loops and two ramps, allowing continuous flow of traffic in and out of the intersection.
In this case, when complete, the ramps and loops will be on the north end of Highway 1A, and feed Highway 22 from dual roundabouts on either side of the new bridge over the railway tracks.
According to the province of Alberta’s website, the intersection currently serves over 29,000 vehicles per day, and that number is anticipated to grow.
“I think this (new) footprint is going to meet our needs for the foreseeable future,” Hyndman said.
The north side of the project stretches all the way to Sunset, where a second westbound left turn lane will be added at the intersection of Highway 22 and Sunset Boulevard. The access to both Range Road 43 and RancheHouse Road further south will also be removed as part of the project.
There will also be new pedestrian underpass south of the rail tracks, new twin bridges over Big Hill Creek, and room for a future pathway connection to Heartland.
As Seen in The Cochrane Times