Some city councillors during the Dec. 21 council meeting were concerned about prematurely opening Rainbow Road without the proper safety assessments.
Despite their concerns, a majority vote carried a motion to open Rainbow Road north and place traffic counters at the south side of the intersection of the road and Highway 1.
On Jan. 19 at 9:05 p.m., a semi-truck tractor-trailer unit was heading eastbound on the highway when an SUV heading northbound on Rainbow Road entered the intersection and was struck by the semi-truck tractor-trailer, an RCMP media relations officer said.
EMS, Chestermere Fire, and Strathmore RCMP responded, and removed the male SUV driver from the vehicle, who was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He was later issued a violation ticket for failure to stop.
In December, council requested to have Rainbow Road north open to traffic.
Barricades were initially installed north of Windermere Drive to create a dead-end because the gravel stretch was not anticipated to withstand large traffic volumes.
The affected roadway doesn’t have drainage on the west side of the road, the north end of the road near the intersection is often wash boarded, and there is significant snow drifting during the winter.
In December, the operations of the roadway was prioritized as an ‘other’ roadway and maintenance was done on an as-needed basis, director of community operations Kathy Russell said.
It was anticipated that maintenance intervals would need to increase to at least three times a week, and there was the potential that traffic in the winter would have to cross into the oncoming lane to get around road maintenance activities because of the narrow road width.
From feedback received from the city’s transportation consultant, opening the road would attract additional traffic to the intersection.
“There are two issues, the quality of the gravel section, and the consideration of the safety of the Highway 1 intersection with the high speeds, the consequences of an accident would be fairly high,” Russell said. “We need to be mindful that the intersection is properly evaluated.”
Mayor Jeff Colvin believed removing the barriers, using counters, and ensuring staff pay attention to the road infrastructure was the best option for Chestermere.
“If the road is falling apart quicker than we anticipated, we can either repair it or we can shut it down,” he said.
The city’s legal counsel Richard Jones reminded council that the municipality must keep a road in safe operating order, and with the intersection being a major thoroughfare the standard of care would be high.
“It doesn’t mean you have to reconstruct it, but the existing roadway must be kept in every good repair given the nature of its use,” Jones said.
He also added, that typically opening a road is not the obligation of council, but administration because it’s operational.
“If you’re of the view that it can be done safely, and you’re satisfied with that, you can make that decision, but it’s open to the court to determine that the road wasn’t properly maintained given its character,” Jones said. “As a council you have to be convinced of the character of this road that you know it would be safe. When you take action there’s a risk, and if you don’t have all the information, your decision might be wrong.”
Councillor Shannon Dean was hesitant to agree to open the road without seeing the appropriate assessments completed but was in support of opening the road at a different time.
“There are some synergies that can be created by opening this road, I have the greatest faith that people are going to watch themselves, and I’d feel bad if there was an accident there, but you have to be alert with what you’re doing,” councillor Mel Foat said. “I’d like to see the road opened.”
