M.D. puts rubber to road for Transportation Master Plan

Posted on February 8, 2024 by Vauxhall Advance

By Trevor Busch
Vauxhall Advance
editor@tabertimes.com

With sights set on the creation of a Transportation Master Plan, the Municipal District of Taber has been seeking the input of area residents about locations of concern in the municipal road network and what they would like to see improved.

To that end, the M.D. hosted two open houses last week for the public, with the first held on Jan. 30 at the M.D.’s operations office near Barnwell, and a second on Jan. 31 at the Vauxhall and District Seniors Centre.

Brad Crossland, manager of planning group at Al-Terra Engineering which has been contracted to assist the M.D. with creating their Transportation Master Plan, talked about the purpose of the plan and its development in Vauxhall last week.

“So the goal of this study is essentially to develop a dynamic plan for the next five to 10 years for the transportation network within M.D.. We’re going to provide them with a set of tools that’s going to allow them to proactively deal with some of the recurrent road network issues such as maintenance, safety, and things like that, to essentially make the most efficient, safest transportation network that’s possible.”

“We started the project right around the beginning of November last year, and the expectation is that we’re going to have final deliverables over to them and do a council presentation at the end of August (2024),” said Crossland.

Information provided at the open house included a project vision, as well as a draft vision statement from the M.D. 

“Through 2035, the Municipal District of Taber will implement refined processes and procedures to enhance infrastructure and support the evolving needs of the community by continuing to provide a flexible, fiscally responsible and economically sustainable transportation network where commodities and agricultural equipment is are moved efficiently, and people can travel safely,” reads the vision statement.

Other information provided at the open house showed traffic volume statistics for major roadways throughout the M.D. current to 2022. Not surprisingly, the highest volume roads in the M.D. are Highway 3 and Highway 36. Some M.D. roads have significant traffic, but most are low volume. 

Crossland commented on the success of the previous open house held on Jan. 30, which saw a good cross section of residents, businesses and organizations.

“It actually went really well, we had a really good turnout, just shy of 50 people which is really good for something like this, for sure. In the info gathering stage, we’ve got lots of good feedback and a stakeholder meeting in the afternoon yesterday (Jan. 30) as well. A lot of the members, local business, business community, some of the irrigation districts representation, emergency services, school districts.” 

With sights set on the creation of a Transportation Master Plan, the Municipal District of Taber has been seeking the input of area residents about locations of concern in the municipal road network and what they would like to see improved.

To that end, the M.D. hosted two open houses last week for the public, with the first held on Jan. 30 at the M.D.’s operations office near Barnwell, and a second on Jan. 31 at the Vauxhall and District Seniors Centre.

Brad Crossland, manager of planning group at Al-Terra Engineering which has been contracted to assist the M.D. with creating their Transportation Master Plan, talked about the purpose of the plan and its development in Vauxhall last week.

“So the goal of this study is essentially to develop a dynamic plan for the next five to 10 years for the transportation network within M.D.. We’re going to provide them with a set of tools that’s going to allow them to proactively deal with some of the recurrent road network issues such as maintenance, safety, and things like that, to essentially make the most efficient, safest transportation network that’s possible.”

“We started the project right around the beginning of November last year, and the expectation is that we’re going to have final deliverables over to them and do a council presentation at the end of August (2024),” said Crossland.

Information provided at the open house included a project vision, as well as a draft vision statement from the M.D. 

“Through 2035, the Municipal District of Taber will implement refined processes and procedures to enhance infrastructure and support the evolving needs of the community by continuing to provide a flexible, fiscally responsible and economically sustainable transportation network where commodities and agricultural equipment is are moved efficiently, and people can travel safely,” reads the vision statement.

Other information provided at the open house showed traffic volume statistics for major roadways throughout the M.D. current to 2022. Not surprisingly, the highest volume roads in the M.D. are Highway 3 and Highway 36. Some M.D. roads have significant traffic, but most are low volume. 

Crossland commented on the success of the previous open house held on Jan. 30, which saw a good cross section of residents, businesses and organizations.

“It actually went really well, we had a really good turnout, just shy of 50 people which is really good for something like this, for sure. In the info gathering stage, we’ve got lots of good feedback and a stakeholder meeting in the afternoon yesterday (Jan. 30) as well. A lot of the members, local business, business community, some of the irrigation districts representation, emergency services, school districts.”