Battleford council has given its approval to making an SGI Provincial Traffic Safety Fund grant to address issues between the intersections of 22nd Street (to Highway 40) and 29th Street on Highway 4.
What the town is looking to do, according to acting the town’s chief administrator, David Gillan, is apply for funding for two “prepare to stop” signs/lights to be located between the two intersections — one going north and the other going south.
The grant would be for $72,300 to cover that cost. For that application, the town has letters of support from the highways department and their own fire department; Gillan said they also expect to get one from the RCMP.
The intention is to address safety concerns at the two intersections on 22nd and 29th Street. The two intersections both have traffic lights and the posted maximum along the road is 80 km/h.
Even though there are oncoming “prepare to stop” lights coming from the north and south towards those intersections, in between those two intersections there are none, Gillan said.
The danger part, he said, is that people catch the light at the first intersection and are still doing 80-90 km/h, and there’s no preparation for the next set of lights. “Once you get into an intersection and you’re doing 80-90 (km/h) it’s a bit precarious,” said Gillan.
The other issue is east-west traffic crossing the highway at the two intersections, heightening concerns about accidents happening at those locations.
Gillan noted they have spoken to SGI and learned there have been 21 collisions at the two intersections between 2015 and 2019. Fortunately, no one has been killed but Gillan said there has been a lot of damage.
“It’s in line with our thinking that something needs to change,” said Gillan.
Councillors supported the application, pointing out this was something they had long asked to be addressed.
“This is something we have asked for as council, and staff as well as our citizens have voiced concerns,” said Mayor Ames Leslie. A number of semi drivers had voiced concerns as well and were asking for the safety issues to be addressed.
The motion to direct the town’s CAO to make the application for the SGI provincial traffic grant was approved unanimously.
