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Bonnyville Town Council to discuss solutions for congested traffic on main street.

Town of Bonnyville, councillor Rene Van Brabant brought up an idea to solve traffic slowdowns on main street at Tuesday’s regular council meeting. Van Brabant suggest council looks at the possibility of eliminating left turns at key intersections during peak hours.

The problem, as Mayor of Bonnyville, Gene Sobolewski points out, is that the roadway is not under the authority of the Town, but rather Alberta Transportation.

In the meeting councillor Van Brabant suggested that the intersections of 49th Street and 50th Avenue (corner of Brosseau’s and Sylvestre’s Sporting Goods) and 46th Street and 50th Avenue (Sobey’s corner) eliminate left turns from 11:00am to 1:00pm and 4:00pm to 6:00pm.

Mayor Sobolewski said there has been discussion on what to do with main street for a number of years.

“We had a lot of life to that issue about five years ago, when the peak was here,” the mayor explains at that time it was a bigger problem.

The Town asked the province to help them in figuring out how to solve the issue. However, at the time, the province responded that it was not a priority.

“The bottom line is the Town does not have jurisdiction on that road,” stressed the mayor. Should any change come, it would have to come with the approval of the province.

“It’s gone on for 15 years and nothing’s been done on this road,” stated Sobolewski.

Van Brabant suggested bringing the topic to the policing committee for discussion.

The item will be brought to council to discuss at a future meeting, confirmed mayor Sobolewski.