Closing a portion of Coal Mine Road that connects to Eastgate Way North in Erin Ridge won’t solve the subdivision’s traffic problem, it will just move the problem.
Currently, many people living in neighbourhoods north and east of the city limits in Sturgeon County are using Coal Mine Road as a commuter road to get to Erin Ridge North, using a shortcut through residential streets to get to Costco and the surrounding commercial developments. Closing Coal Mine Road where it intersects Eastgate Way North will simply force more traffic onto Bellerose Drive, where drivers will make a right-hand turn onto an already congested Erin Ridge Drive, and then up through another already traffic-dense road, Everitt Drive, to the popular shopping destination.
Anyone who drives through Erin Ridge on a regular basis knows the gong show the roads have become. Traffic calming curbs have popped up on what seems like every intersection along Erin Ridge Drive. Everitt Drive has undergone a similar transformation. The problem isn’t the traffic, however, as much as it’s the planning of the Erin Ridge neighbourhood.
Planners should have anticipated the traffic Erin Ridge Drive would attract. Most residents of Oakmont, the neighbourhood immediately east of Erin Ridge, drive through Erin Ridge regularly to get to the Landmark Cinemas, Costco, Lowe’s, Save-On Foods, Walmart and all of the other amenities found on the north end of St. Albert. These Oakmont residents use either Eldorado Drive or Erin Ridge Drive, depending on their destination.
The same can be said for residents in Upper and Lower Manor Estates, and the neighbourhoods in the Pinnacle Ridge area. The majority of these Sturgeon County residents will use Bellerose Drive and turn onto Erin Ridge Drive to get to the north end of St. Albert. They simply aren’t going to go all the way down Bellerose to Boudreau Road, and then to St. Albert Trail to get to the north end. That’s an indirect path, fraught with too many traffic lights.
If the planners of the Erin Ridge neighbourhood would have realized that the neighbourhood stood in the way of access to the north end of the city, perhaps they would have made Erin Ridge Drive a four-lane commuter road, like that of Dawson Road, McKenney Avenue or Giroux Road. A drive down Everitt Drive reveals it should have received the same treatment.
The Erin Ridge traffic snarl is further exacerbated by building École Alexandre-Taché School on the corner of Eldorado Drive and Erin Ridge Drive, further congesting a road that leads to the Sturgeon Community Hospital. Lois E. Hole Elementary School was erected on Everitt Drive North, in close proximity to a dense residential area by Costco and Lowe’s.
Hindsight, of course, is 20-20. It’s easy to see the problems as they exist today. But shouldn’t planners of neighbourhoods be able to see the problems before they exist? That’s why it’s called planning, after all.
