Ring Road Brought Up At The Assembly

This is an extract from yesterday’s Hansard, a full copy can be found here http://www.assembly.ab.ca/Documents/isysquery/e960bb25-f032-4d30-84fa-e8d17e61c779/1/doc/ ******************** "The Speaker: The hon. Member for Calgary-Shaw. Calgary Southwest Ring Road Construction Concerns Mr. Sucha: Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Spring is here – well, sort of – and we're about to enter the thick of construction season and further development of the Calgary southwest ring road. After attending the most recent open house about this project, I have some questions I would like to ask, that came from some stakeholders in my area. Now, I know the Member for Calgary-Bow has been a strong advocate for mitigating the impacts of dust from the project to neighbouring residents by bringing these issues to the minister's attention. To follow up, to the Minister of Transportation: what is being done to ensure that the air quality in the summer is safe and April 4, 2018 Alberta Hansard 385 not disruptive for the quality of life of people living near the project? The Speaker: The hon. Minister of Infrastructure. Ms Jansen: Why, thank you. It's nice to stand up again in the House. We've applied strict controls on our contractor who is operating the gravel operation in that area, including the installation of tarps, sprinklers, dust suppressants to the crushing operation. We've had some wonderful advocacy in that area on this particular issue. Construction is a nuisance. We find that all the time in Infrastructure and in Transportation. The result can be noise and dust issues. However, all efforts are being made to minimize the construction-related impacts to the work that's being undertaken right now in the transportation utility corridor. The Speaker: First supplemental. Mr. Sucha: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given that another issue is around light pollution – the astronomy community has indicated that certain filters can block out specific light temperatures while others cannot – to the same minister: what is being done to ensure that light pollution from the street lights is not an issue and that the kelvin level is set so that the colour can be filtered out using telescopes for recreational or scientific purposes? The Speaker: The hon. minister. Ms Jansen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, there's a lot of thought that's been put into this. In fact, lower temperature LED lights are being used to minimize the amount of blue light in the area. Light is going to be directed downward on the highway from 15-metre poles. Those are going to be used to minimize the spread of the light. Cut-off fixtures are going to be used to minimize light spillage and reduce glare, and there's no high-mast lighting along highway 22X. That's going to help us avoid light flooding. The Speaker: Second supplemental. Mr. Sucha: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given that concerns are being raised around the interaction with wildlife, to the same minister: what is being done to reduce the impacts on wildlife to ensure the park areas around the road are at their most pristine conditions? The Speaker: The hon. minister. Ms Jansen: I thank the member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the section of the southwest Calgary ring road where the road crosses the park area, the bridges have been designed with wildlife passages. That was really important in that area. We have a substantial amount of wildlife, and I'm glad the member is concerned about that. Wildlife fencing is being installed to guide the wildlife to these crossings. No recreational pathway is going to be completed in that area, further separating the wildlife from human interaction. Along the wildlife crossing our contractors are installing native trees, grasses, shrubs, providing cover for animals who are crossing the road. And Alberta Environment and Parks compliance . . ." The conversation is starting in the assembly which is a good thing. Sadly the conversation is being hit by the status quo answers to shut things down based on old standards rather than digging deeper to establish what should be in play. Now we need to better educate our politicians and have them being a more informed voice for our future. Please keep sharing and getting others involved in the conversation.