It might not seem important to commuters frustrated by congestion along Ray Gibbon Drive, but the possibility of some relief might hinge on who owns the road.
Currently, the title belongs to the city.
“We don’t want to have the title to Ray Gibbon Drive,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse. The city would prefer that the road title was transferred to the province and re-designated as Highway 2.
Right now, St. Albert Trail is technically a leg of Highway 2. The city owns it, Crouse said, but the province provides a small grant for maintenance. But it doesn’t cover the costs of maintaining the trail in full, he said.
The original intent of building a western bypass road was for it to be Highway 2, Crouse said. The third phase of Ray Gibbon Drive was opened in 2014.
The province contributed nearly half the cost of about $75 million to build the road. But congestion woes during peak times can send St. Albert and other regional commuters ranting, leading to discussions about widening the road.
Despite letters over the years, including one in 2014 about transferring the title, no real action has been taken on the transfer. Crouse said there’s nothing really compelling for the province to take on the road and widen it, noting the project isn’t as politicized as some of the other highway expansions that have taken place.
“You take a look at the widenings that occur, it’s mostly because there’s a lot of either fatalities or a lot of pressure put on the province,” Crouse said, noting examples like Highway 63, the highway to Fort McMurray.
Former transportation minister Wayne Drysdale said in a letter to Crouse in 2014 that he supported having city and provincial departments begin talking about the future transfer.
Two years later, the issue is more or less in the same place. Crouse said he recently met with Transportation Minister Brian Mason, who committed to asking his department to set up a meeting on the topic with the city. There have been meetings in the intervening years about the issue.
“The future potential transfer of Ray Gibbon Drive from the City of St. Albert to the province will be based on provincial priorities, available budget and negotiations with the city,” said Adam Johnson, a public affairs officer with Alberta Transportation.
Traffic modelling to determine the role of Ray Gibbon Drive in the provincial road network, cost estimates and how an expansion would fit into the province’s priorities is underway, Johnson said, but there are no answers yet on if or when that might happen.
Crouse said if the province doesn’t take over title, future councils will probably have to decide if they’re going to spend the millions needed to widen the road.
While the intent was always for the road to become Highway 2, the mayor said the issue of title was never put into a formal contract.
“There are enough letters and inferences, but there was never a contract signed. They transferred a lot of money to us,” Crouse said.
During council’s January strategic planning and priorities session, they identified a need to advocate on the topic, including hopes to make it a regional effort rather than just solely a St. Albert one.
