The City of Airdrie and Rocky View County are joining efforts to get an interchange built on the QEII and Township Road 264, between Airdrie and Balzac.

While discussions of the interchange are at the research stages, an open house was held on June 14 at Genesis Place to allow residents to voice their opinions.

Lorne Stevens, Director of Community Infrastructure with the City of Airdrie, said Airdrie and Rocky View County have been pressing Alberta Transportation for this.

"Between us and Rocky View County, we've been pressing the province to come to the plate and to undertake at least some high level planning studies that would map out the footprint interchange so we can figure out where various roadway connections need to be, what the setbacks are, what right of ways are going to be required."

Although the open houses have begun, with one out of three already giving them some input, Stevens said the interchange will not be happening for quite sometime.

"Part of the discussion at the open house was, this is not an interchange that's going to be built in the immediate future. This is likely an interchange that's going to be 10-20 years into the future."

The reason behind this, is Rocky View County and Airdrie have more immediate projects that need to be completed first.

"They will be pressing hard to get 40th Ave online well before the construction of Township Road 264, and I know Rocky View is certainly going to be pushing to do upgrades on secondary highway 566, right in the Balzac area," said Stevens.

While the potential construction is well into the future, Stevens said an interchange would help with the future traffic that will be at Cross Iron Mills, especially once the New Horizon mall is open for business. 

More information on the interchange can be found on the City of Airdrie website.