Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown is looking for support from Alberta's Transportation Minister surrounding the cumulative traffic concerns on Highway 2 and no promises of a 40th avenue overpass.

Not on the Ministry's Capital Plan, concerns Brown who along with the city have been urging for funding for a third overpass.

"They have a 3 year Capital Plan where they allocate dollars to different projects across the province - Airdrie's not on there," said Brown.

With plans in place for a 40th avenue overpass over the CP Rail tracks, Brown says it's just another quick fix that doesn't deal with the source of the problem.

"By building this option for community members to get in and out of Sierra Springs - you don't have to go out on the usual route out of Yankee Valley but you'll have a through route. The second piece of that is there's going to be a future on-ramp hopefully in the interim to get on the QE2, much like Edmonton Trail."

Brown is slated to meet with the Deputy Minister of Transportation in the coming weeks where they'll provide the city with some clarity on smaller proposed changes such as adding another lane for the northbound Yankee Valley Boulevard exit.

"But again we have no commitment to dollars and we have no commitment for timeline so that doesn't really do us any good," added Brown. "The number one concern is safety so when you reiterate over and over and over again that having cars parked in an inside lane on a freeway that's doing 140 km/h by lots of people - or higher, it's of grave concern and it cannot continue and we need to deal with it."

"All I'm looking for and we're looking for as a community is certainty in their support."

That support trickles down to funding a third overpass, which is out of the city's control as the highway falls under provincial jurisdiction. Brown said the province is in the midst of conducting a detailed study on the QE2, but with the construction of an overpass taking nearly two years to build, plus the remaining time to finish the study, Airdrie's traffic concerns could be far worse.

"We need a commitment now, we need to get this thing going, enough talk."

"We understand that the government's challenged for dollars, but I kept hearing throughout the election and also afterwards that they're going to be spending money on infrastructure and they're going to be keeping people working, and if that's the case then lets get it going here in Airdrie and lets get these projects off the ground."

Brown said the provincial government, although new, has known about Airdrie's request for a third overpass for over 10 years as the upgrades from the "Rat Hole" to the Yankee Valley underpass were a temporary fix.

"I don't care where you build it, if it's 264 or if it's 40th avenue. At least we know and we can make a plan, we can have that connectivity, and we can develop accordingly but not knowing what you're going to do next and never getting a commitment, how can we possibly plan."

Bradley Jones - airdrienews@goldenwestradio.com