As Rainbow Road continues to be a popular route for Chestermere drivers, city council is working to find solutions to eliminate dust and reduce noise on the roadway.
At the Oct. 18 council meeting, City Director Cam Wong presented various options for councils’ consideration to help mitigate dust and reduce noise on Rainbow Road. City Council approved a double seal coating to be applied to Rainbow Road next spring, pending the budget.
In the past, the city has applied calcium chloride to the roadway, which maintains moisture in the road to prevent dust.
City crews maintained the road with grading, and watering.
Use oil was another option Wong presented to council.
Used oil would reduce dust, however, there would be no significant change for noise and there would be a possibility of complaints of used oil on vehicles.
“It would offer similar results as the calcium chloride,” Wong said.
An MRO Process where aggregate is added and then graded to a smooth surface and compacted, or paving the road were also options.
Lastly, Wong presented the double seal coating option for Rainbow Road.
“Seal Coatings are treatments that provide effective pavement maintenance to all structurally sound roadways,” Wong said. The application of a bituminous binder, followed immediately by a cover aggregate, produces a durable, flexible, low-cost bituminous driving surface.”
He explained that the double seal coating option would result in dust elimination and noise reduction. The cost to apply the double seal coating is approximately $236,000.
In January, traffic counters were installed on Rainbow Road, to determine how busy the road is.
Traffic on Rainbow Road is continuing to increase, with the north counter counting 28,826 vehicles in September, and 21,246 from the south counter.
The north counter determined that the average speed of vehicles travelling northbound was 55 km/h in September, with southbound traffic averaging 51 km/h.
The southbound counter determined the average speed of vehicles travelling northbound was 65 km/h, and 64 km/h for southbound traffic.
More than 200 vehicles travelled between 80 km/h and 89 km/h, 45 vehicles travelled between 90 km/h and 99 km/h, and 10 were over 100 km/h.
“Patrols in this area have been increased as requested to prevent speeding and illegal dumping,” Wong said. “The majority of the traffic on the road is sedans and small SUVs.”
City administration recommended that the traffic counters be removed on Rainbow Road North to be utilized in other areas of the city.
City Council authorized administration to remove the traffic counters on Rainbow Road.
“Given the trips that are happening, it’s obviously an important road for Chestermere residents, we’re having upwards of over 20,000 trips per month,” Mayor Jeff Colvin said. “It would make sense for us to move into some solutions.”
