Editorial: Cardiff Road overpass unlikely to happen soon

The death of a Parkland County woman on Highway 2 at Cardiff Road Friday afternoon has many of us waving our fists in the air at the provincial government to get on with building the promised Cardiff Road interchange. It is a reasonable and expected reaction from residents upset that the treacherous crossing, the scene of motor vehicle collisions that are far too frequent, has finally been followed by the loss of human life. The cause of death is not yet known.

The announcement by former MLA Ken Kowalski in the summer of 2011, followed by the subsequent appearance of heavy equipment and the breaking of ground a short time later, gave many who cross that stretch of highway hope that within a couple years we would be safely crossing Highway 2 on a daily basis.

But not all the land has been acquired. Land acquisition is a relatively easy thing. You buy the land. When that becomes problematic, you expropriate the land. That, too, is an easy task. You contact the owner of the land and advise them of your intentions to take their land for a reasonable amount of remuneration. The key here seems to be in the notification – easy when it is a single owner or a few owners; substantially more difficult when it is multiple owners. When that is the case, the deal becomes as fractionalized as when it was first made.

Until the province can sort its land acquisition woes out, we are left with two options: continue to risk crossing Highway 2 at Cardiff Road or take a short drive north and cross at the existing overpass at Highway 642.

There have been too many collisions at the Cardiff Corner crossing. Friday’s fatality is one death too many and should give us all a reminder to take a moment longer so perhaps we or others may live a little longer.

-SD

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5 Comments

  1. Ref the Cardiff overpass: Has anybody broached the idea of moving the Hwy 2 Northbound exit lane about ten feet to the east? If it were moved further East, and thus separated more from the highway, then Cardiff Rd traffic headed West across the highway could easily see highway traffic headed North. The main problem there (I think) is that people crossing the highway have their southerly view blocked by traffic on the exit lane. Isn’t moving the lane a faster and MUCH cheaper answer to safety problems at that intersection?

    Concerned Citizen

  2. I drive that road every day the answer is simple. Stop at the stop sign and look both ways. Every day there are people blowing that stop sign

  3. The sad fact is, someone is dead. Who is to blame for the collision is a matter for law enforcement and the courts to decide, but nothing can bring back that poor lady. At some point the political will has to exist to make an overpass in some configuration become a reality. Perhaps our MLA, Maureen Kubinec can provide insight as to the issues holding up matters? I had the chance to chat with her at the Trade Show and she seems very nice and quite approachable. I would think she would be open to suggestions on how to improve things and expedite matters. Mr. Vreugdenhil’s suggestion seems to have definite merit on the face of it…..it may not be a permanent solution, but it seems it would certainly aid in preventing these tragedies.

    My condolences to the bereaved and I hope the injured make swift and complete recoveries.

  4. Let’s not overcomplicate things here. You come to the stop sign and wait until you can see if it is safe to proceed. I don’t care if it’s 5 o’clock and there’s a line up of 20 cars behind me and a constant stream of northbound traffic turning east at Cardiff Road blocking my view, and the driver behind me who has a better view to the south is blaring on his horn. Until I know for sure that it is safe to proceed I won’t budge.

    One other problem that I see often is that drivers will pull into the center of the intersection and stop, waiting for a break in southbound traffic. Other drivers turning from westbound to southbound will proceed into the intersection, assuming that the first driver is going to turn into the acceleration lane, only to have their way blocked. I’ve never seen it result in a collision; normally people just flip the bird to the first driver and go around her. I have to wonder “don’t these people make the same turn every single day and know that there is a southbound acceleration lane??”. Obviously not. Maybe signage indicating the acceleration lane is needed.

    PS, to say that Friday’s death is “one too many” is kind of insulting to all the people who have perished there previously.

    • Well, it is easy to be insulted, isn’t it? That is the way of the world.

      Our interviews and studies of stats have shown many colisions but no fatalities there in the past six years. Clearly any traffic death is one too many. Clearly any injury in a collision there or anywhere is one too many.

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