By paNOW Staff

Update: Traffic spoils end of relaxing long weekend, mayor hopes to prevent repeat

May 24, 2016 | 12:20 PM

After spending a relaxing weekend away, vacationers spent their return to Prince Albert frustrated at immense and slowly moving traffic.

Wait times stretched for hours on Highway 2 as traffic wound its way back to Red Wing School. A trip which should only take a few moments, commenters on paNOW’s Facebook page said it took them two hours to drive from Red Wing School to River Street.

Ward 6 councillor Martin Ring explained in a Facebook post the delay was due to construction on Diefenbaker Bridge, resulting in only one lane heading into town.

“My apologies to those that were stuck for an extended period of time because of a major miscommunication,” he wrote.

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Ward 2 councillor Rick Orr said the city was “caught” by the traffic, and they weren’t prepared for the massive influx of cars.

“From now on, on long weekends, we’re going to open two lanes south, which only makes sense,” he said.

After several hours of complaining citizens, Prince Albert Police Service opened a second southbound lane, leaving one northbound lane.

Diefenbaker Bridge falls in the Prince Albert Northcote constituency, and NPD MLA Nicole Rancourt said the traffic was unacceptable but not surprising.

“This happens every summer that the bridge seems to be needing some repairs, which is justified… it’s not only on the long weekends. I’ve been hearing from people who are trying to get into work in the city that have been waiting half an hour, 45 minutes, up to an hour to get into the city,” she said.

Rancourt added the traffic backup was a good indicator of why Prince Albert needs a second, provincially funded bridge.

“We have a lot of people utilizing businesses in northern Saskatchewan that need to cross at Prince Albert. We want to have traffic flow being able to come through our city. We need a provincial bridge located in Prince Albert,” she said.

@princealbertnow highway 2 headed south is backed up from dief bridge to North of pine street. Like a couple km of traffic jam.

— Pottsey (@EmptyPotts) May 23, 2016

Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne wants to make sure the mistakes of the weekend are not repeated.

He plans to introduce a motion at the next council meeting, June 7, which will have a direct impact on bridge traffic over long weekends.

“From Friday at noon until Sunday at noon, there will be two lanes open going north and from Sunday at noon until Monday at noon, there will be two lanes going south,” Dionne said.

The Mayor’s motion will also work to ensure better communication between city council, city staff and police.

“We should have had the second lane open at 12:30 p.m. and not 5 p.m and that caused quite a bit of the problem,” he said. “The traffic did surprise us coming from all directions but we will be ready for it in the future.”

In terms of every other weekend. Dionne said there have been no problems so far but the city will monitor it.

“If we have to, we will open up another lane,” he said. 

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