Re: Annexation Adds Infrastructure Costs
I wish to comment on the article regarding the closing of RR255 due to the deterioration of the bridge located south of TWP 544.
The article implies that the city "inherited" a deteriorating bridge however the reality is that the bridge was stressed beyond its limits by the closing of Villeneuve Road for over three months this year.
Semi trucks with large loads and trucks hauling heavy equipment were using RR255 as a bypass to avoid the mess that is St. Albert Trail as a means to get to Ray Gibbon Drive. The official detour was to take Giroux Road however this did not prevent trucks from using this much speedier short cut. A three tonne limit and local traffic only sign was placed on the road in late September, by which time the damage was already done.
This road was never meant to handle the volume and weight of the traffic that we have seen this year and as a result, we now have no access north on this road, probably for the entire winter.
No traffic monitoring was done and nobody at the city thought this would happen? Another unexpected expense to taxpayers when early monitoring and enforcement of weight limits would perhaps have prevented this.
Corlaine Legge, St. Albert
