Transportation minister Rick McIver will be one of the officials manning shovels in the official launch of the town's Hwy. 1A upgrades and will be bringing news of additional improvements to that stretch of highway.
The ceremony is being held Friday at 10 a.m. on the north side of Hwy. 1A near the starting point of the project.
"With the easing of restrictions, we're able to have 150 people outside. We're not encouraging to amass a crowd any bigger than that, but it is important to our community," says Genung. "I'm really looking forward to speaking to a crowd and sharing with the minister how important this is to our community."
"We're doing it on purpose right there on the side of the highway so that he can experience the traffic that Cochrane sees on a Friday morning."
Besides McIver and Genung, other members of Cochrane town council, Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie, and Rocky View County Reeve Dan Henn will be participating.
Mayor Jeff Genung says the minister will also be announcing a $9 million continuation of the Hwy. 1A upgrades from the Totem Building west towards the future 1A-22 interchange upgrade. Genung says once the town finishes its portion of the project, it will hand the baton to Alberta Transportation.
"The Treasury Board saw fit and Alberta Transportation did petition them for money for the project to include that "gap one." So the previously outlined design of the 1A-22 didn't include that, it now will. The minister is going to make an announcement, and make it official."
One person who's especially looking forward to the moment is Councillor Patrick Wilson, who heavily based his 2017 election campaign upon the traffic issue.
"Even though it has taken longer than I liked to see shovels in the ground, I'm thrilled with the outcome."
Fri, Apr 19, 3:30 PM
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