New salt, sand shed installed on Highway 40

There’s a new salt and sand shed on Highway 40 south of Grande Prairie. The province worked with their maintenance contractor Ledcor to open the maintenance facility, which is meant to reduce travel time for sanding trucks between Grande Prairie and Grande Cache.
 
The site is 10 kilometres south of the Kakwa River, and was used as a gravel stockpile before highway 40 was paved in the early 90s. Alberta Transportation says that the surge in industry development along the highway over the past few years has meant a sharp increase in traffic.
 
There were four fatal crashes along the stretch reported by RCMP in 2015 – three in the first two months of the year and one at the end of November, claiming the lives of three men and one woman.