The City of Airdrie and Alberta Department of Transportation announced yesterday (April 13) that approval has been granted for modifications to the Sierra Springs Drive and Yankee Valley Boulevard intersection in the city.

That includes a left hand turning lane out of the popular Sierra Springs shopping district, something Airdrie's Director of Community Infrastructure Lorne Stevens says should make a huge difference to traffic flow in the area.

"We're anticipating a significant improvement to traffic operations overall to the Sierra Springs commercial area as a result of, not only this improvement, but additional work that the city has underway just now."

Mayor Peter Brown says a visit to Airdrie by Transportation Minister Brian Mason was the catalyst to receiving permission to make the improvements.  

"We've been lobbying the government on the issues with this intersection for a number of years and Minister Mason is directly responsible for our opportunity to move the project forward.  We appreciate that he took the time to meet with us and truly understand the positive impact this decision will have within our community."

The Sierra Springs commercial centre has limited access points which has caused major delays on both Main Street and Yankee Valley Boulevard.

The approval by the province is conditional upon several factors the city will be responsible for during the modifications, including that Airdrie will assume the costs related to implementing the changes.

The work to improve the intersection has already been approved in principle by city council.   Administration will bring forward an anticipated budget and timeline this spring.  The budget is expected to be in the neighbourhood of $250,000.  The intention is that the changes will be completed before the end of 2017.  

 

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