YEG - Edmonton Int Airport

[LO 044]

Alberta rolls out record spending on road construction
Jason Markusoff, edmontonjournal.com
Published: 1:28 pm
EDMONTON - The long, dark drive from Edmonton to its international airport will be brightened this summer by 230 new light posts.

Transportation Minister Luke Ouellette announced today that the province will install the lights on the QE2 highway all the way from Ellerslie Road to Airport Road, as part of the province's record $1.9 billion spending on highway construction this year.

The province will also start work on the northwest stretch of the Anthony Henday ring road, and bridges and overpasses on Highway 63 in and around Fort McMurray, although further twinning of the infamously dangerous road wasn't part of today's announcement. In total, the Stelmach government will repave 1,240 kilometres of provincial highways - including stretches south of Ellerslie Road - and complete 50 kilometres of new paved highway.

Ouellette admitted there's still a lot of catching up to do on Alberta's infrastructure deficit. Despite the nearly 60-per-cent increase over last year's highway construction budget, increased heavy-truck use and age continue to wear down the province's roads.

"We believe by 2011 that we should be up to the area where we are actually repairing our roads as fast as they are degenerating," he told reporters.

George Rogers, MLA for Leduc-Beaumont-Devon, said he's long pushed for the light standards along the busy highway stretch leading out of Edmonton. It will boost safety, he said, but also improve visitors' impressions of the capital.

"That's the first thing people see when the get here, the darkness on the way from the airport. It was long overdue," Rogers said.