A motion proposing harsher penalties on Alberta’s highways has passed unanimously in the legislature.
The motion, proposed by Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo Independent MLA Mike Allen, is an expansion of his June 2012 report on Highway 63, which listed over 20 suggestions for improving safety on the 240-kilometre stretch.
“Fines levied have not kept up with inflation. The cost of changing the oil in your car has gone up with inflation while the cost of burning rubber on your car has stayed flat,” Allen told the legislature. “Too often it is said of and by excessive speeders on Highway 63 that a fine equivalent to four hours’ wages, where there’s no guarantee they’ll be caught, is woefully inadequate. It’s play money.”
While Allen had Highway 63 in mind when he proposed the motion, the document officially asks the province to create and enforce harsher penalties on all highways.
“It is a distressing and disappointing fact that over one in four fatal collisions on Alberta highways involve a driver travelling at an unsafe speed,” he said. “When motorists callously and selfishly disregard speed limits, they put innocent people at risk in addition to themselves.”
]]>Everything is on track and on schedule for the twinning of Highway 63, said MLA Don Scott at Friday morning’s Alberta Transportation progress update.
“By the end of this year, we will have awarded all the contracts to complete the 240 kilometres of twinning,” said Scott. “I drive the highway very often and I’m amazed by the progress that’s being made.”
Approximately 650 workers and 470 pieces of equipment will be deployed to the highway this summer to do what Scott calls “the lion’s share” of the work.
“This summer should be a tremendous time to get a lot of work done, just because the weather provides that opportunity. I think we’re going to make a lot of progress this year,” said Scott.
“This year we anticipate 135 kilometres of grading work will be completed in 2014, 133 kilometres of base and paving work will begin, and 146 kilometres of crushing work will begin in 2014. We’re moving forward at an exceptionally good rate.”
Since 2012, the Government of Alberta has spent nearly $275 million on the project. An additional $423 million has been budgeted for the 2014-15 construction season and another $268 million will be spent between 2015 and 2017.
The 240 kilometre stretch of highway between Grasslands and Fort McMurray is due to be completed in the fall of 2016, though 70% of the project should be done by fall 2015.
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RCMP investigating a major collision on a busy northern Alberta highway Wednesday morning said Thursday that the two people killed in the crash were from the Edmonton area.
Wood Buffalo RCMP said two Edmonton men died, after two transport trucks collided head-on on Highway 63, south of Fort McMurray near Mile Marker 173 just before 9 a.m. Wednesday.
One of those transport trucks was carrying diesel fuel at the time, and the collision sparked a fire.
Initial reports on the crash indicated a number of other vehicles were involved in the crash, police later said five vehicles swerved to avoid the collision and ended up in the ditch. No other injuries were reported as a result of the crash.
]]>The crash closed the highway for about 21 hours.
Police still do not what caused the crash between the semi-tractor trailer and tanker truck.
Listed to an eyewitness description on CBC News.
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View full twinning status mapRead Highway 63 twinning takes big step forward
(Alberta Government news release)
By Julia Parrish, CTV Edmonton
Less than three weeks after a Toronto family was pulled from the wreckage of a serious collision on Highway 63, a bystander who stepped in to help finally met the family he played a role in rescuing.
Back on Monday, August 27, Maurice Poirier was on his way home – driving just north of the Highway 55 junction near Boyle at about 7:30 p.m. when he said the tanker truck behind him tried to make a turn, and the brakes of the truck locked.
In moments, the massive truck jack-knifed, and two vehicles travelling behind the truck collided with it.
Poirier told CTV News at the time that he immediately sprang into action once he saw what had happened.
“I ran to the car to see the injuries and tried to get the people out,” Poirier said at the time.
He said one of the vehicles had four people inside, he watched two people escape, but two others were still inside – he said he helped a young boy by cutting his seatbelt and pulling him out, before helping a number of other bystanders pull a 21-year-old woman out.
By the time she was safe, the vehicle they had all been in was engulfed in flames.
Three people are seriously injured, and another three were sent to hospital, following a crash between a semi tanker trailer and two other vehicles Monday night.
RCMP say the collision occurred at 7:30 p.m. about 18 kilometres north of Atmore.
Witnesses told police that the southbound tanker trailer struck the two northbound cars after the driver lost control and crossed the line into oncoming traffic.
One of the vehicles caught fire. Construction workers rushed to pull out the four occupants before the car was fully engulfed in flames.
Three of the vicitms — a 21-year-old woman, and two men aged 19 and 48 — were flown to hospitals in Edmonton. All three are from the same family.
]]>A super-wide load being transported to Fort McMurray from Lloydminster will cause several overnight highway closures during a five-day trip beginning Tuesday.
The 362,150-kilogram load is about 11 metres wide and nearly 13 metres high. Because it will take up the entire span of a two-lane highway, including the shoulder, Alberta Transportation has required the temporary closure of highways along the route. The carrier will only travel at night.
Portable electronic sights will be up at intersections and highway access points to warn motorists, the province said in a news release.
Entrec Corporation will begin moving the load Tuesday night at 7 p.m. west along Highway 16 from Lloydminster, arriving at the Two Hills weigh scale on Highway 16 and 36 no later than 6 a.m.
From there, the load will use the following schedule:
Pilot vehicles and an RCMP escort will accompany the load of 14 vessels for the duration of the five-day trip.
A detailed route plan, including the locations and times of highway closures, is available on the company’s website at entrec.com or the website for the Coalition for a Safer 63/881.
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
]]>Fibre optic lines, stringent environmental standards and aggressive motorist behaviour are three challenges facing crews currently working on five twinning-related projects on Highway 63 in Northern Alberta.
Work on this 240-kilometre primary route linking the Athabasca oilsands to the rest of the province rings in at about $1 billion.
Now that winter has given way to warmer temperatures, drivers will see ramped up construction activity, as 250 pieces of equipment and more than 400 workers take to the road to complete tree clearing, grading, bridge construction, paving and utility moves.
This year will see almost 60 kilometres of grading completed on Highway 63 at a cost of $93 million.
New tenders will be issued in the coming months in preparation for another 60 kilometres of twinning, including grading, paving and bridge construction to be completed by 2015.
All work is expected to be completed to meet the accelerated fall 2016 twinning schedule.
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