The Parking Task Force met with Tony Chelick, operations manager from Alberta Transportation and Jay Magus, senior project manager from iTrans, the consulting company which carried out the traffic flow analysis, in a public meeting on Wednesday, March 24 at Town Hall.
    The meeting was set up to discuss the traffic flow problem on 3rd Avenue and the options available to reduce the problems caused by increased traffic without having to introduce parallel parking on 3rd Avenue.
    Task Force chair, Barry Fullerton presented an overview to the invited parties of the questions the Task Force had on the two intersections on Highway 9, the first one being the 2nd Avenue intersection, as well as the 3rd Avenue one.
    iTrans explained they carried out a study directed by the town in 2006/2007.  Following the study and a collision review, a consensus was reached the bridge structure would not be widened and, to accommodate pedestrians on the bridge, the left hand turn southbound should be removed.
    Provincial highways have certain standards that they strive for and, to control traffic in an organized way, intersection spacing on highways needs to be 400 metres. iTrans therefore looked at the intersections on 2 Avenue, 3rd Avenue and Railway Avenue W.
    To adhere to Alberta Transportation’s requirements, iTrans carried out a field investigation on 2nd Avenue, a public meeting and traffic counts analysis.
    iTrans then recommended to close the left hand turn and straight through from 2nd Avenue westbound as well as eastbound.
    iTrans and Alberta Transportation explained that leaving this intersection open on 2 Avenue would also create a safety issue. 
    As traffic increases, it would get harder to turn left from 2 Avenue onto the highway and drivers would start taking more risks, causing what is called an intersection failure.
    The meeting then moved on to the traffic lights at 3rd Avenue. 
    The Task Force proposed changing the lights to give vehicles turning left on to the highway an advanced turn, introducing a split phasing light for westbound traffic.  iTrans and Alberta Transportation explained that there would need to be two lanes on 3rd Avenue to enable this.     
    The Task Force suggested two lanes could be created by putting parallel parking on the north side of the road from 1st Street West to Highway 9, leaving angle parking on the other side of the road.
    iTrans explained this may not be possible but they will be doing a traffic flow analysis, using a synchro analysis software, on the various scenarios to include a second lane on 3rd Avenue, keeping the maximum angle and/or parallel parking possible. They will be reporting back to the Task Force for next week’s meeting.
    Alberta Transportation confirmed that changes could be made on 3rd Avenue as long as they did not negatively impact Highway  9.
    A discussion took place regarding the lifespan of the bridge as its replacement would change the traffic setup. Alberta Transportation said they would check this information and report back next week.
    John Shoff, Task Force member and downtown merchant, told inSide Drumheller, “Alberta Transportation seems willing to negotiate with the Task Force quite well, as long as we come up with realistic alternatives.”

The Town of Drumheller and Starland County provided the setting for an Army Reserve training exercise during the weekend of March 19-21.
    The main purpose of the exercise was to build and enhance soldier skills such as patrolling and reconnaissance.
    During their 36 hour long exercise, reservists set up camp at the Drumheller Municipal Airport, where their communication centre was established, covering an area from Horsethief Canyon to Wayne.
    In this exercise scenario, troops were in a foreign country trying to interrupt supply lines going to insurgents in another part of the country. Drumheller was one of the transfer points, and a presence needed to be established to disrupt the supply line. 
    The first stage of the exercise was to do a full reconnaissance of the area, which was done on the ground and with the use of helicopters, as well as setting up good communication lines. Reservists would find out information about activity in the area by observing and talking to civilians, and then relay the information to the communication centre.
    Information was gathered and consolidated to make a picture until the end of the exercise when the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Coates of the King’s Own Calgary Regiment was to be briefed and would check how consistent the information was in terms of what was observed on the ground. 
    “This will show how robust our information passage is.  This is an important skill set for us to have for overseas places like Afghanistan, Bosnia, or any future places the government chooses to send us, and then of course if we are dealing with a domestic crisis, unarmed domestic responses,” explained Lt. Col. Coates.
    The landscape of the area enabled Army Reservists from 41 Canadian Brigade Group (Alberta’s Army Reserve Formation) the type of training they need to be able to work in complex environments they may encounter during future overseas missions or domestic emergency.