Highway 16 bypass an issue for business

North Battleford’s business community is increasingly concerned potential customers from Alberta are bypassing the community completely.

The issue is the Highway 16 bypass running from the Battlefords bridge all the way to Railway Avenue in the southeast.

It’s a convenient route for traffic coming in from Edmonton or Lloydminster heading to Saskatoon. But by the time the routes meets up with Highway 16 eastbound to Saskatoon, the route has already bypassed a string of businesses and restaurants along Railway Avenue in the southeast.

Those include McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Tim Hortons, as well as big-box retailers in the area including Walmart and the Gold Eagle Casino, among others.

While new development is on the way with a strip mall and a new Comfort Inn, there is mounting concern that potential customers from the west are driving past all of them with no easy way for them to turn around on the highway and go back.  

One of the businesses wanting the situation addressed is Frontier Centre. The mall’s property manager Janice Sander raised concerns about the bypass route before a Battlefords Chamber of Commerce monthly directors meeting Sept. 15.

She expressed concern that eastbound traffic on the bypass was missing the turnoff at Battleford Road between Tropical Inn and the Humpty’s restaurant.

The bypass “kind of goes right by us, unless you know to make that turn by Humpty’s and the Tropical Inn to go to McDonald’s and down,” said Sander.

Without knowing about the turnoff in advance, the traffic would head down the bypass and end up out of the community completely. Sander also noted Gold Eagle Lodge was having some issues with customers having difficulty finding the hotel because of the bypass. One of the directors noted potential guests would often cancel their reservations because they had already driven out of town.   

There is some signage identifying the turnoff, but Sander noted many aren’t noticing it.

“We are losing business,” she said.

Sander asked the Chamber for support in lobbying the Department of Highways for signage on the highway bypass, so that traffic would be alerted to stores and businesses in the Battlefords.

Not surprisingly, Chamber members were sympathetic to Sander’s concerns. The Chamber spoke about offering a letter of support, and there were some other supportive sentiments expressed.

Battlefords Chamber director Terry Caldwell made clear he thought North Battleford was the “logical spot” for people to stop at on the road, especially compared to Lloydminster.

“Lloydminster’s not a very friendly place to stop at,” said Caldwell. “It’s hard getting in and out of there. It’s very busy, that main drag.”

But Caldwell also made the point that it was difficult to notice the existing turnoff sign, especially at night.

“People are just bypassing us,” he said, figuring they only have an hour to get to Saskatoon. “We need to stop that.”