By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Rural Albertans enduring a news-rich summer have carved out some bandwidth for planes, trains and automobiles and how they crisscross the countryside, questions last week at a UCP-organized media roundtable suggest.
Devin Dreeshen, the minister of transportation and economic corridors, addressed subjects that included deadly and dangerous intersections, deteriorating bridges, and the status and progress of highway upgrades.
Reporters wanted to know about replacements and upgrades of linear infrastructure, some of it owned by municipalities rather than the province.
Fielding questions from about 15 rural media representatives, Dreeshen discussed concerns that provincial restrictions on allowable photo radar limit revenue while boosting the need for wheels-on-the-road to catch speeders.
The minister discussed budget priorities, trucking safety and enforcement, and a loss of regional passenger service at a southern airport.
Also on the virtual floor were routing and paving decisions that will affect communities and environmentally important areas of the province for decades and even centuries.
Banff rail routing remains unclear
Dreeshen didn’t have a definitive answer about when to expect final decisions on rail routing and station siting between Calgary and Banff, as Alberta continues to kickstart a passenger rail master plan with a three-year spend worth $15 million.
The minister emphasized that first up in the government’s recently released plan is a high-speed link between Edmonton and Calgary. The province envisions getting down to serious business on the north-south route next year with the selection of a private proponent.
After the selection and when designs are final, “everything gets bolted on and attached” to that foundational link, he said.
Even if commuter service for bedroom communities near the two major cities makes the most sense early on, the province will keep an eye westward. But timing also depends on what proposals come to the fore.
“You know, we can walk and chew bubble gum,” Dreeshen quipped.
Alberta plans to create a Crown corporation to run a network built in partnership with the private sector and serviced by privately owned trains. But the public will retain ownership of all the infrastructure that doesn’t move, like stations, tracks, bridges and overpasses.
Highway widening sparks park use controversy
Yet as the province moves forward on high-speed rail, the motoring public keeps needing more asphalt, rebar and concrete in more places to get around Alberta safely and efficiently.
In the last six years, the province has seen about 400,000 more Alberta drivers join the fray on 225,000 or so kilometres of public road. Total licensed drivers number more than 3.5 million in Alberta, travelling perhaps 150 million kilometres on asphalt and gravel every day within their province.
Demand on the QE II has sparked controversy where the rubber meets the road along the west edge of Red Deer city. The municipality faces giving up 10 hectares of parkland to allow for widening to eight lanes as the alignment shifts east.
Dreeshen, the MLA for nearby Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, said the province continues negotiating compensation with the city for parkland loss, while also working with all parties, including Red Deer County, on engineering and design.
A possible trade for losses to much-loved and much-used Maskepetoon Park and Heritage Ranch could be improved trail access to a Crown-owned nature reserve called Slack Slough, immediately southeast of Gasoline Alley.
The north end of Gasoline Alley is a good example of “that safety feel of a well-designed major thoroughfare” that the province wants to create further north along a re-imagined stretch of Highway 2.
The province will build two new bridges across the Red Deer River while making the alignment wider and safer, Dreeshen said. He noted that about 20 per cent of the traffic on the stretch of highway is city traffic that uses it as a connector.
Construction completions in three phases of work covering 11 kilometres are set to begin in the fall of 2027 with the opening a new overpass of a railway line.
Bridge conditions worry Stettler locals
East of Red Deer in Stettler county, meanwhile, the locals are frustrated about a lack of money for bridge repair and replacement, Dreeshen heard.
Detours around four, load-restricted bridges are adding costs and travel time to farmers and school bus operators while fuelling safety worries among the public.
The minister pointed the County of Stettler and other municipalities towards grants under Alberta’s Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program, with applications for inclusion in the next budget closing Nov. 30.
STIP is a narrowing envelope, though. The grants, geared mostly for linear infrastructure beyond Alberta’s major centres, drop sharply over three years to $265.6 million from nearly $345 million, the province decided in its last budget.
The County of Stettler has made “multiple applications” under STIP in the past and should continue to do so, Dreeshen said, suggesting culverts — pipes under roads — as a less expensive and easier-to-maintain alternative to some bridges.
In the provincially owned slice of the transportation pie, engineering and design are well underway for improvements joining Red Deer and Stettler counties along Highway 21 across the Red Deer River.
“We’re hoping for construction dollars for (the McKenzie Crossing Bridge) in the upcoming budget, but that’s one of those fingers-crossed moments.”
Highway 88 completion ‘a lot faster’ than a decade
Meanwhile, local politicians in the Slave Lake area about 240 kilometres northwest of Edmonton have told the press that improvements to Highway 88 could take a decade.
No way, said Dreeshen. “We’ll be a lot faster than a decade,” he said. “I can guarantee that.”
The widening, repaving and addition of passing lanes — envisioned over three phases and affecting a southerly stretch of perhaps seven kilometres along the route to High Level — has multiple moving parts to make the highway safer.
Dreeshen called Highway 88 “a very major route,” adding that “we want to make sure that we can get this project built in a safe and efficient manner. So great advocacy, I would say, from the county, the town and the MLA to make sure the project gets done in the best way possible.”
(That MLA is Scott Sinclair, representing Lesser Slave Lake, who returned to the UCP fold during the most recent seasonal sitting of the legislature. He’d been kicked out of caucus for his public criticisms of 2025-26 budget spending.)
Okotoks intersection awaits construction bucks
Less certain is imminent replacement of an intersection of 338 Avenue and Highway 2 south of Calgary near Okotoks, site of a recent fatal accident and ongoing public concern about safety.
Dreeshen called the “ultimate fix” there a new interchange, confirming that the design and engineering remain in place.
“In a perfect world, in Budget ’26 we would have seen construction dollars for that intersection,” Dreeshen acknowledged.
He said his ministry would “keep fighting and advocating” for construction dollars there next year.
Locals have a strong ally in Highwood MLA R.J. Sigurdson, the minister of affordability and utilities, who has “advocated vigorously to make sure this project finally crosses the line.”
Wet weather tests highway construction contractors
As for overall highway construction progress this year, it’s been a challenging season for contractors to stay on track and within budget in the wetter-than-usual north.
The Alberta season started strong because of a dry spring, but then Edmonton and the north started experiencing heavy and often record-breaking rains in June and July.
“Weather in Alberta is always unpredictable, as everybody knows. So it is tricky. But this has been a fairly decent year for construction so far,” Dreeshen said.
