As if traffic wasn't bad enough...

Stardate 6373.33

I know Red Deer isn't the thriving metropolis that Calgary is, or Toronto, or New York say, but since our office moved into the Edgar Industrial Park from the north end, we hav ehad to deal with a lot of industrial traffic. The thing about the industrial park is that there are only two accesses, one from the south, and one from the north into the place. This doesn't seem bad I suppose, but when it's time to go home, there is always quite a line-up because the intersections at these points were never designed for the amount of traffic we have at present (nevermind the future). The park is about 10km x 2.5 km in area, and services many businesses, most of which are oilfield (meaning big trucks and aggressive pickup drivers). I deal with this congestion by staying a little late, and arriving a little early.

However, for several weeks now, the south entrance to the industrial park is closed for bridge repairs. The first day of the closure, the traffic was backed up for about 5 km. People were actually driving through vacant lots and over the berms and ditches to go directly onto Highway 2. This means I have to stay a *lot* late to miss the traffic LOL!

The worst part is that tomorrow, they are shutting down the Highway 11a railroad crossing for repairs and this is one of the few remaining ways to hit the last open entrance into the park. Should be fun.

What worries me about this whole closure deal though, is that if it takes an hour to clear out *most* of the traffic at the end of the day, what would happen in the event of an emergency? We have had spills and such before...

CHAOS!!!