Fort McMurray gets land-for-highways deal

Government and Fort McMurray leaders on Thursday signed a $131-million, land-for-highways deal that will give the northern boom community more room to grow along with new responsibility for area roads.

Under the terms of the deal, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo will spend an estimated $131 million over the next five years to improve Highways 63 and 69.

In exchange, the municipality will get 166 hectares of undeveloped land in Parsons Creek and Saline Creek. That land will be sold to housing developers and the proceeds will pay for the road work.

“It’s incredibly important because there has been a land shortage in my region for some time now,” Fort McMurray-Conklin MLA Don Scott said Thursday.

“... it’s going to help address the need for commercial and activity, and it’s going to improve the road and transportation issue,” he said.

The land given to the municipality is expected to eventually house more than 44,000 people.

The municipality hasa greed to finish twinning Highway 69 and will expand Highway 63 to six lanes from Hospital Street to the Athabasca River, along the main street in Fort McMurray.

The municipality will also improve three intersections: Highway 63 and Mackenzie Boulevard, Highway 63 and Highway 69, and Highway 69 and West Airport Boundary Road — the road to the region’s new airport terminal.

Among public transit improvements, residents will see a bus lane at Highway 63 and Thickwood Boulevard and bus-on-shoulder accommodation along Highway 63 from Highway 69 to the Hospital Street Interchange.

The province remains responsible for the construction of the Parsons Creek interchange. That $150 million project is expected to be complete in 2015.

T he dea l comes si x months after the province established a 22,000hectare Urban Development Sub-Region — setting a boundary around Fort McMurray that gives the city room to grow.