I was very surprised to read this:
Quote:
The highway is often referred to as the deadliest in the province, but an Alberta Transportation spokeswoman, Health Kaszuba, said Monday the collision rate is lower than average.
She said the five-year collision rate on Highway 63 is 82 collisions per 100 million vehicle kilometres. The average for similar two lane highways in the province is significantly higher at 107 collisions per 100 million vehicle kilometres.
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Read more:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Pr...#ixzz1tisTXxMt
This topic resonates the attitude of a lot of Albertans and especially Northern Albertans. All these people signing petitions and protesting the government to just "Git 'er Done" without even having a clue about the challenges at hand. Just throw money at it.
It really isn't that easy. As the article states, building roads over muskeg and through boreal forests just isn't as easy as it sounds! The roads up here are horrible throughout the city. Last year four apartment buildings were condemned because they were sinking/shifting in the soft ground. There are buildings all over town where you can look in the corners and the walls/ceilings don't line up right any more!
When the new heavy truck rest area was built south of town they rushed and got the road paved. That following spring the new road had heaved so much it was impassable at highway speeds - it literaly was like the whoop-de-doos on a dirtbike track! It had to be ripped up and paved all over again!
We had a concrete pad poured around our entire shop a couple of years ago. The first winter after it was done it had heaved so much (about six inches) that we couldn't open the doors on the north side of our building all winter. In the spring it was fine again!
Wherever and whatever you build up here is built on the equivalent of a great big swamp and is just not as easy as it is elsewhere!
Albertans - throwing money at it won't fix it! It has to be done properly and properly is going to take time! Do taxpayers really want to fund a billion dollar road project that is slapped together and requires another billion dollars of taxpayer money in a few years to fix it? Some of these people are like children holding their breath.........."BUT I WAAAAAAANT IT"". We all want the highway twinned. They're working on it.
In the meantime don't drive like idiots and don't run around calling it the world's deadliest highway.