It is not designed to be a highway and has significant safety shortcomings, but more and more recreationalists are accessing Kananaskis Country by travelling along Spray Lakes Road.
That was the case last December when tragedy struck two couples returning home from enjoying snowshoeing activities in the area.
James Allan and Jennifer and Darrin Waugh of Calgary and Cochrane lost their lives when their SUV rolled over into Goat Pond on Dec. 30, 2010.
The sole survivor, Jamie Waugh, has said in interviews she believes if there was a guardrail in place where the vehicle rolled into the icy water her family would still be alive today.
In the wake of the fatal accident, Alberta Transportation commissioned a safety review of the road.
A draft of the study shows that even at a very basic level, the road has no posted speed limits and recommended a number of signage improvements and guardrails along water hazards, including the one involved in the fatality.
Spokesperson Trent Bancarz with Alberta Transportation said some of the recommendations have already been taken.
“Some of the signage improvements have taken place,” Bancarz said. “Signage will hopefully go a long way for people to drive the appropriate speeds.
“Of course, some of the signage will be done this fall when we get the results back from followup activities.”
Followup work being done this summer includes testing to determine what the maximum speed should be on the road and its many twists and turns.
The test to determine those speeds cannot be done while it is covered in snow and ice.
The report recommends guardrails be placed next to Whiteman’s Pond, Goat Pond and Spray Lakes Reservoir.
Bancarz said additional work this summer will also help determine placement of guardrails to make sure they are effective.
Part of the issue with the Spray Lakes Reservoir location is TransAlta has a liner in the water body and its location will affect the ability to place a guardrail there.
“There’s a potential if we place a guardrail there it could puncture the liner,” he said. “We have to find a way to work around it.”
A third area for improvements in the report relates to roadside objects like trees, power poles and rocks. Bancarz said many of those identified affect sight distance and do not leave enough clearance on the side of the road if a vehicle goes off it.
He added to deal with many of the objects will take time as the road is not a normal provincial highway and does not have a defined right of way.
That means the land the obstacles are on does not belong to the Improvement District, which owns the access road, while Alberta Transportation maintains and operates it.
The road was developed by Calgary Power, now TransAlta, to access its hydro facilities.
Bancarz said it was not engineered in the usual sense when it was built and was never meant to accommodate the traffic volumes it currently sees.
He said improvements will not bring the road to a gravel highway standard, but will improve its operation.
“The changes should make it potentially a safer road,” he said.
The report also suggested paving the road, but other improvements should be done first.
Bancarz said paving is complicated and is not being considered at this time. Parts of the road are quite narrow and to pave would require side slopes and clearance, which would be challenging.
The safety review also determined the collision rate of the road was more than twice the provincial average for undivided roadways. With 40 collisions over five years, the rate is 3.65 collisions per million vehicle kilometres compared to 1.6 collisions that is the provincial average.
Of all collisions, 58 per cent involved vehicles leaving the road and a high proportion were winter collisions.
A higher proportion also occur later in the afternoon and may be linked to higher traffic volumes as people depart recreational activities at the end of the day.
