TISDALE — Owning a trucking company in Tisdale, Colin Chupa knows the difficulties truckers have along Highway 3, especially with no parking allowed along the highway.
Chupa, who owns Chupa Trucking and Excavation, hopes to provide a safe place for drivers to stop with the purchase of the land from the town across the highway from Robin’s Donuts.
With construction hopefully starting in the spring, Chupa said the lot will have space for 15 semis to stop and cross the highway for something to eat or to park to wait out storms or have a break.
Stopping along Highway 3 at Tim Hortons or Robin’s Donuts can be dangerous, he said, for both truckers and motorists as trucks are often stopped along the highway in no-parking zones so that drivers can get something to eat.
“They've put up no parking signs on both sides [of the] highway, so any trucker that wants to stop and get a coffee, there's nowhere for him to legally or safely park and buy a coffee to continue on their way.”
Chupa has seen accidents between two motorists whose line of sight was diminished due to a semi and motorists colliding with semis. Even with the Beeland Co-op parking right behind Tim Hortons and Robin’s, there is little space for semis to manoeuvre and park safely.
And this has been a hard fight for Chupa. The previous city council denied his offer to purchase the land for the parking lot, said Brad Hvidston, the town’s administrator, but with a new council being elected at the beginning of November, Chupa wasted no time in approaching them about the land purchase. Within two council meetings, the town finalized the purchase.
Chupa is paying for the project out of pocket because he wants to make the highway a little safer for both truck drivers and motorists.
