(CHAT News Today)

By Chris Brown

Bow Island says no to rerouting Highway 3 south of town

Oct 26, 2021 | 10:31 AM

BOW ISLAND, AB – Residents in Bow Island didn’t have to vote for mayor or councillors last week but did vote on a question that is likely to have an even bigger impact on the town down the road.

Town residents were asked whether they support a proposal from the province to realign Highway 3 to bypass the town.

71 per cent of voters said no, and 29 voted yes to the proposal in a 2013 study administered by Alberta Transportation.

Mayor Gordon Reynolds says the results show a clear message to the province.

“Don’t bypass our town is basically what we’re saying,” he said. “If the bypass was say along the south edge of town we could probably live with that and we could probably start developing out that way. But it’s 4.3 kilometres from the current site at Highway 3 and Centre Street where the traffic light is in Bow Island. 4.3 kilometres is quite a ways away.”

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Reynolds said businesses such as restaurants, gas stations and ready-to-move homebuilders along the highway like the attention the traffic brings.

“The business community, especially those along the highway are very concerned about (the plan). And most residents agree with that,” he said.

A study from Alberta Transportation regarding the proposed highway change suggests what it calls the “ultimate” plan that would see Highway 3 become an eight-lane freeway across southern Alberta, with the current highway through Bow Island becoming Highway 3A.

Reynolds says that’s not currently that’s not on the table primarily due to the cost. He thinks from that standpoint it would be a lot cheaper to twin up to the town, adding most of the thoroughfare through town is just about wide enough to run four lanes as it is.

He said it appears it will be “many, many years” before traffic volumes are high enough that building a freeway that bypasses the town will be feasible.

Reynolds is also part of the Highway 3 Twinning Development Association. Last year the province announced a project to twin the stretch from Taber to Burdett. Reynolds said the next priority for the group is Medicine Hat to Seven Persons and then they want to see work done in the Crowsnest Pass and Pincher Creek areas.

He said last week’s vote is as much about the future as it is the study from eight years ago.

“I don’t anticipate anything will happen in the Bow Island area for quite some time. But we want to be on record now saying that we’re currently opposed to the functional plan.”