Highway 1 traffic detouring through Cochrane to avoid road work upsets mayor
Paving on Trans-Canada between Canmore and Calgary causing traffic tie ups.
You've probably been stuck in traffic on Highway 1 if you've travelled to or from the Rockies on a weekend lately.
Paving is causing traffic delays on the Trans-Canada highway between Canmore and Calgary.
There are signs suggesting motorists use Highway 1A through Cochrane to avoid delays, which is not sitting well with Mayor Ivan Brooker.
"Why would they do that? We already have serious issues with recreation vehicles going out … to go boating," he said.
"So it was already an issue and I didn't understand the reasoning behind compounding that problem by directing even more motorists that way. Very frustrating."
The intersection at Highway 1A and Highway 22 — which many motorists use to reach Highway 1 — is often extremely congested.
Brooker says people are already figuring out that the 1A isn't really an effective shortcut and fewer of them are taking it, but he wants a long-term solution.
"We have actually in the last six [to] eight months now been working with Alberta Transportation to come up with a different concept, utilizing traffic circles similar to the intersection on highways 8 and 22," he said.
"We're asking them to think outside the box."