Semi-Tractor Trailer Crashes Near Vegreville

Semi-Tractor Trailer Crashes Near Vegreville

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

A semi-tractor trailer careened into the green space between east and west bound lanes of Highway 16 on Nov. 7 near the west end overpass.

A cleanup crew was seen onsite early Tuesday morning clearing up the scene. Eastbound traffic was slowed down to 50 km/hr to accommodate recovery efforts.

Upgrades to Vegreville CN Rail Crossing

Rosanne Fortier - News Correspondent

On Nov. 2, the CN Rail crossing on Highway 857th in Vegreville was closed to accommodate upgrade by workers from Road to Rail Construction Group INC.

President of Road to Rail Construction Group INC Matt Reber said, “CN owns the crossing and is responsible for maintaining it.

We did this as a preventative maintenance because the crossing was old and needed to be upgraded.

Workers from Road to Rail Construction Group INC work on upgrades to the Hwy 857 rail crossing in Vegreville

(Rosanne Fortier/Photo)

If we didn’t do this work, there might have been the potential to have a train derail. The work we did involved cutting the asphalt, taking out the old crossing panel, replacing it with a new one, putting crossing pads in, repaving and cleaning up.”

Reber said the total cost of the upgrades was $200,000.

Vegreville Mayor Tim MacPhee said, “I feel these upgrades were necessary because this has been one of the problem crossings in our community for a long time. I remember it being an issue ever since I have been on Vegreville Town Council and that has been for around 10 years. They have done some temporary fixes by some local companies but with the amount of truck drivers’ traffic that drives through it, we needed better upgrades.

I know myself, I have written letters to the Chairman of CN Canada regarding it and we don’t have a lot of say in it because it is not our road; it is a Provincial Secondary Highway. So, when we approached CN, we had to do it through Alberta Transportation to get some work done there.

So, I am very happy to see they put the upgrades on and it will go along with the 50 Street and 51 Street crossing which are very well made. This project needs longevity as there are a lot of truck drivers who drive on HWY 857 North. So, this is well received from the Town of Vegreville’s aspect. We are very happy about it.”