Bragg Creek lights operational in time for Long Weekend traffic

The new traffic lights in Bragg Creek are on track to be operational in time for the long weekend.

The lights are viewed as a long-awaited band-aid to heavy congestion experienced at the hamlet's major intersection in peak season until a more permanent solution is created.

Bragg Creek resident Brian Hodgkins has been monitoring the construction progress since December 2020.

"It was a dangerous intersection with the four-way stop, especially on the weekend with all of the traffic coming out here from the city, so it's very nice to see it becoming operational," says Hodgkins.

He started actively engaging officials last summer.

"I started back in July 2020 reaching out to Alberta Transportation, our local MLA, and anybody that I could find that would listen. I would call them and send them emails and got the process going in July 2020."

He and other residents helped to point out what wouldn't work. Hodgkins says there initially wasn't going to be left turns on to Hwy. 22 northbound from Burnside Ave. That would have paralyzed traffic for those attempting to enter the highway from Balsam Ave. during peak traffic.

The intersection is known to be heavily congested when the weather improves in the late spring right through to the fall. Hodgkins doesn't live far from the intersection.

"On weekends in the summer, it starts probably around 3 p.m. Friday and continues until Sunday-Monday night, depending on whether it's a long weekend or not."

Increased parking capacity for the West Bragg Creek trail system has also seen an increase in traffic in the winter. He says hundreds of cars go there every day.

Like other residents, he's looking forward to the permanent solution promised by the government and believes the answer lies in roundabouts.

"People are getting used to using roundabouts in this country, so if you use a roundabout properly, it will move a lot of traffic."

MLA Miranda Rosin pushed for a major upgrade to the intersection and received confirmation from Transportation minister Ric McIver that it would be completed by 2025.

"I heard almost immediately after that, that 2025 was too far away, and they needed immediate relief," Rosin told Cochrane Now last August. "So I went back to work with McIver's office to look at more immediate solutions.

Rosin says traffic through this intersection has increased over 350 per cent over the past decade.

The alignment of the traffic lights were being adjusted Mar. 20 as a final step in making them operational.