The Mayor of Burns Lake has concerns over the intersection at Highway 16 and Francois Lake Drive beside the rail crossing.
Mayor Henry Wiebe proposed a four-way traffic control and redirecting traffic through parking lots.
“I thought we were making some headway but we kind of got thrown back at this meeting as they’re [Ministry of Transportation] are pushing back saying that it’s a safety issue to open the intersection up to four way traffic. I was saying it’s a safety issue, somebody’s gonna get hurt or killed and their response to that was well maybe we should just close the railroad crossing and take all traffic out of that area. That’s a solution that’s been tried, 10 or 15 years ago and there was a lot of opposition from businesses. I feel hopeful that we’re going to somehow someday see traffic flowing in a normal pattern through that intersection but it’s going to take more work.”
Councillor Charlie Rensby suggested whether stoplights would make any difference at this intersection.
“If we have a four-way stoplight there, it will break up the flow of traffic going through town.”
Mayor Wiebe said the ministry’s suggestion was to put in a traffic circle but we would have to use half of the gas station’s yard which is not an option.
“It’s been frustrating and I thought we would have the intersection open by now, but that’s not the case.”