Mayor Jeff Genung calls a meeting with Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen the highlight of the recent Alberta Municipalities convention.
Four town council members held private meetings with four cabinet ministers during the Red Deer convention to discuss pressing issues for the community, including the push for the twinning of Hwy. 22 south of the interchange and a new bridge across the Bow River.
While expressing gratitude for the major interchange project, Genung says they explained how the traffic bottleneck will only be pushed further south along Hwy. 22.
Genung explains they asked, "What is it that we can do to get the plans, designs, and concepts done, so we can see construction on that important piece of infrastructure soon, rather than later? We don't want to be waiting 40 years on this project, let's get going on it."
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On-the-spot number crunching by Transportation officials reinforced the town's detailed presentation. There are 24,000 daily vehicle trips across the Bow River bridge, double the amount the province wants to see before considering a project.
Genung admits there was a tense moment waiting for data to be acquired by Transportation officials, followed by relief, and a little of his trademark humour.
"I used that opportunity to lighten the mood in the room and said, 'Well, I'm really glad that you came to that conclusion, Minister, and we didn't have to prove our point'."
Transportation officials quickly pointed out there are other communities with pressure on infrastructure.
"I know we're one of many but at least we've identified the need," says Genung, "we've put it on the radar and so now the next steps will be how can we start to move this through their process of design, funding, getting it into the budget and then shovels in the ground.
"I did share with him that we don't want it to start tomorrow. We don't want our entire transportation infrastructure network completely under construction at one time, but how quickly after the 1-22 interchange is done could they start on the bridge and twinning south."
Additional meetings were held with ministers of Municipal Affairs, Environment, and Public Safety stressing other needs of Cochrane.
The councillors were armed with detailed booklets to aid in advocating for town priorities.