Sign for the Highway 3 Twinning Development Association-led petition. (CHAT News Today)

By Justin Goulet/LethbridgeNewsNOW

Medicine Hat to Seven Persons tops twinning association’s priority areas for Highway 3

Feb 9, 2022 | 2:28 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Highway 3 Twinning Development Association (H3TDA) has announced its newest priorities.

The H3TDA has been advocating for the twinning of Highway 3 for over two decades. In 2021, the provincial government announced funding for the association’s No. 3 priority, the Piikani Nation Functional Planning Study, which would take a look at the stretch of highway that runs through the First Nation’s lands.

As a result, the association noted on Wednesday that it has revised its top four twinning priorities.

In a release, the H3TDA stated that its “appreciative of any progress made towards the twinning of Highway 3 and we thank the province for recognizing the importance of getting the Piikani Nation study underway.”

“We hope the government will continue to provide predictable annual funding towards completion of additionally critical sectors. Let’s keep the momentum going!”

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The H3TDA’s new key priorities of areas that are most in need of funding along the Highway 3 corridor are:

1. Medicine Hat to Seven Persons (26 kilometres)

2. Pincher Station to Bellevue (36 kilometres)

3. Seven Persons to Burdett (46 kilometres)

4. Fort Macleod Stage 1A (Shovel Ready)

Association president Bill Chapman told LNN, “they’re achievable priorities, being that they’re not super long stretches of highway that would require a lot more amounts of money.”

TABER TO BURDETT

In July 2020, the province announced funding to twin Highway 3 from Taber to Burdett, a 46-kilometre section of roadway and a main priority for the association.

READ MORE: Government announces Highway 3 twinning between Taber and Burdett

READ MORE: Survey out for continuation of Highway 3 twinning

READ MORE: Bow Island says no to rerouting Highway 3 south of town

Chapman said, “we did get a report from Alberta Transportation on the current status of the project, being [that] our original first priority of twinning, from Taber to Burdett, 46 kilometres, is on schedule and on budget. With that, we’re very pleased to see that action is being planned to take place this year. We don’t have an exact date as to when it will commence.”

He noted that the budget for the stretch from Taber to Burdett was $150 million, and added that for the four new priorities reported Wednesday, he “would suspect that they’re budgeting $150 million based on each of those priorities.”

Chapman said the association is in regular communication with Alberta Transportation.

“Our top priority is to obviously get the whole of the project, the whole of Highway 3 twinned from Medicine Hat to the Crowsnest Pass. That is our number one priority, however, how we get there is better defined through those portions of highway that will be the easiest to work on, or the most accessible, I guess, without a lot of extra work.”

He added that local MLAs “are certainly with us on this project.”

“I know that MLA Grant Hunter, particularly, has identified this as a key to him and that the whole of the project will be most important to Albertans and to travellers from far and wide.”

Map of the National Highway System, with Highway 3 circled. (Photo provided by the Highway 3 Twinning Development Association)

“In the transport industry or in recreation and tourism, this will be a necessary piece of highway that is part of the National Highway System that is not twinned, so we’re definitely focused and working very closely with our Members of Parliament, of course, for other additional dollars from the federal government to achieve some of those things.”

Chapman is encouraging all Albertans to visit twin3.ca for more information on the project, as well as to access a petition to support the twinning of Highway 3.