Letter: Open letter to Minister of Transportation

Dear Honourable Minister:

Please spare just a few seconds to view this video of Cardiff Corner in great weather with minimal traffic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzNZkfHyB6U&feature=youtu.be

This intersection is unsafe from the way it was originally designed. You can only imagine how bad it is in bad weather and heavy traffic. It suffers MANY more accidents per year than most similar intersections in this province. The reason is simple, as you can see in the video: view of through traffic is obstructed by exiting traffic and drivers assume it is safe to cross the highway. At most intersections that deal with this volume of traffic, the exit lane is separated from the highway and there is unobstructed view of oncoming traffic.

Like many voters in Alberta, I understand that building the planned overpass costs millions of dollars and is not fiscally possible right now.

PLEASE listen to the local elected representatives who have alternative ideas in mind. These can save our province MILLIONS of dollars over the next few years while saving lives and MILLIONS in accident response costs.

One cheap, quick scenario is to move the exit lane just a couple feet to its right. The pavement already exists there, it would not require any construction or road building. All that would be required would be repainting the white lines a couple feet to the East, removing the existing lines, and placing a few concrete curbs separating the exiting traffic from the through traffic lanes. Exiting traffic would move further right, affording an unobstructed view to traffic at the stop sign. This could be done in less than a day at a bare minimum of expense, and YOU dear honourable minister would be the hero of Cardiff Corner for finally getting something done. Please save our lives; implement this quick fix without breaking the bank. Show how important Alberta’s functioning infrastructure is, show how much you care.

My daughter Rebecca is 14 months old, she just started walking. Several times a week she passes this intersection traveling at 100km/hr. If a vehicle jumps out in front of us it might be fatal for all involved. Please be Rebecca’s hero. Implement SOMETHING now to create more safety at this intersection while your ministry uses its resources to create a better, long-term plan.

Sincerely,

A resident of Morinville;
A business owner in Morinville;
A voter concerned for our safety;
A man praying you read this and act on it;
John Vreugdenhil

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5 Comments

  1. Great letter John.

    I noticed Villeneuve got some serious road upgrades at the 633/44 intersection.

    However, Morinville, a town of over 9000 people, can’t get a simple road moved a few feet. This one little change would literally save lives.

    Somehow, our illustrious backbencher Kubinec not only dropped the ball on properly advocating for an overpass Kowalski had on autopilot, she can’t even lobby for a few measly dollars to protect the lives of Morinville residents.

    Kubinec has offices in both Barrhead AND Westlock, which don’t have the population of Morinville COMBINED. What she does NOT have is an office or ANY presence in Morinville. You can easily tell where her priorities are.

  2. An excellent passionate plea John. I am both a father and grandfather who share your concerns. Even this temporary solution is better than nothing and realizing the complexities of the big picture hopefully we can look for a proper solution down the road.

    There are many other Rebeccas’ out there that need some soluton to this problem.

  3. The sad thing is AT did move it over about 5 feet a few years ago when they “fixed” the intersection to improve traffic flow. I guess AT forgot the bit about fixing the intersection for safety that we had been lobbying for.

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