May 16, 2008

Saskatchewan waits for signal from Alberta on year-round La Loche-Fort McMurray road

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta

Residents in a northern Saskatchewan village hoping to shop and work in Fort McMurray will have to wait at least another year for Alberta to make good on a promise to connect the two northern communities.

The village of La Loche is linked to the Alberta oilsands city by a 170-kilometre winter road that generally opens sometime in December and closes in early March.

In 2005, former premiers Ralph Klein of Alberta and Lorne Calvert of Saskatchewan announced the go-ahead for an all-weather gravel road connecting the two provinces.

It would link up to Highway 881 just south of Anzac, Alta., and lead to the Saskatchewan boundary.

The road was hailed by both premiers as a “centennial project” as the two provinces were marking 100 years in Confederation that year.

Wayne Elhard, Saskatchewan’s minister of highways and infrastructure, remains hopeful that the portion of the road in Alberta will be completed soon.

But construction of the final eight kilometres on the Saskatchewan side has been “put on the back burner until we know what the intentions of the Alberta government are,” he added. “We’re disappointed that it hasn’t retained the priority commitment established by the previous administration, but we’re understanding of the cost of the project and the need to address priorities.”

The Alberta department said that while the project is still important to the province, it’s not at the top of the list of the many other transportation projects underway in the region.

While preliminary work on the road is underway and ongoing, including initial environmental studies and consultant work, little headway has been made since December, according to Heather McLachlan, a spokesperson for Alberta Transportation.

Cost to construct the 65 kilometres of road on the Alberta side jumped from a projected $45 million in 2005 to about $125 million, according to Bellikka.

“Roads all over the province are costing a lot more to build now than they were three years ago, especially in the Wood Buffalo region,” Bellikka explained.

“It’s the terrain, having to bring in gravel from a good distance away, and finding the capacity to be able to build it. It’s just a lot more expensive, like everything else in the region.”

The road on the Saskatchewan side of the border already exists, and upgrades to it have cost Saskatchewan $2 million to date.

A deadline for finishing the road has not been set.

Canadian Press

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