$5M for Highway 28 engineering & design work to include passing lanes, twinning

After years of letter writing, lobbying, sitdown meetings in the Legislature, leveraging the media, it appears that finally, local leaders’ calls to address Highway 28 have been heard.

On Monday, Minister of Transportation Devin Dreeshen announced $5 million for engineering and design work on Highway 28 at the Town of Bonnyville office.

This includes twinning Bonnyville to Cold Lake, passing lanes from Smoky Lake to Cold Lake, intersection upgrades, grade widening, curve reconstruction, and safety rest areas. 

“I know some in this room might say, it’s about darn time, it should have been a long time ago. But all I can say is it’s happening now,” said Dreeshen during the press conference, where elected officials from across the Lakeland were present. 

In the past, continuing efforts to draw attention to Highway 28 have been replied to by saying that traffic counts on the highway have not yet met the requirements for twinning.

But that opinion changed, Dreeshen said, after looking at the type of traffic present on the road. That includes not just commuters, but heavy oil tankers and agriculture with limited times to safely pass, as well as the degrading quality of the highway over time.

“That’s why when we looked at highway 28, this way around, we saw that yes, the traffic counts are high. But also as the type of traffic that’s in this region. And we ultimately wanted to make sure that we can address it, we can make sure that we plan for a safe travel,” he said. 

Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA David Hanson in his final weeks of being the area’s representative may have the biggest win of his current term.

As a long-time advocate, he has often touted the figure of 28 per cent of Alberta bitumen royalties come through travelling on Highway 28 to this region.

“It’s something I pushed very hard for many, many years is that we really have only one corridor between here in Edmonton and that’s Highway 28. As the Minister has said, the premier recognizes that it’s not just about traffic counts, it’s about economic benefit,” he said during the press conference. 

“That’s one of the things that I’ve been pushing very hard for as kind of a change in that policy.” 

Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland at the April 2023 Highway 28 funding announcement at Town Hall in Bonnyville.

MLA David Hanson.

Left to right: Town councillor Neil Langirdge, M.D. councillor Dana Swigart, Town councillor Byron Johnson, MLA David Hanson, Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen, Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland, and M.D. councillor Ben Fadeyiw.

Bonnyville Mayor Elisa Brosseau.

Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen.

Dreeshen says typically it takes a year or two to roll out the engineering work of this scale before physical work can begin.

And those who drive the road the most — the Lakeland resident — will have a say at open houses in our area to review the plans and provide their input and what portions of the highway should be looked at the most.

The accumulation of voices from the municipalities was highlighted as a contributing factor in this funding announcement as well.

The Northeast Alberta Alliance for Growth and Opportunities, made up of some 43 local municipalities and First Nations communities, have all combined efforts in the recent months to address Highway 28 as their top need.

This included hiring a dedicated lobbyist, publishing an opinion piece in the Edmonton Journal, and eventually getting a sitdown meeting with several mayors and chiefs in the room with the Transportation Minister.

Mayor Craig Copeland said this is one of the most significant announcements for Cold Lake and area since his time of being mayor in 2007.

“There was a whole whack of us in the northeast, mayor and leaders throughout the region, that came to you [Dreeshen] and there was a small group representing the whole. And I must say you and your staff, that was the first time I left your meeting feeling I think we’ve got a chance here,” said Copeland.

“There’s some that have no real skin in the game for Highway 28. But everybody recognizes that Highway 28 feeds a whole bunch of other secondary highways. And it is that transportation corridor, economic corridor for Northeast and so many people in Alberta benefit.”

Mayors and representatives from the Town, City, St. Paul, M.D. of Bonnyville, County of Smoky Lake, County of St. Paul, Elk Point and others were there for the announcement, highlighting its significance.