Leader staff

People are talking a lot these days about how much truck traffic there is – generally and on Hwy. 88 in particular. So the timing seemed good for another truck count.

Somewhat surprisingly, the March 3 count turned up only three log haul trucks in the 15-minute period. The count was of trucks going either way on 88 past the Sawridge Travel Centre, starting at about 3 p.m.

The total number of heavy haul units was 26 – not as busy as expected, but certainly a few more than most of the similar counts over the past year or so. Fifteen of the units were tank trucks, and eight were in the ‘other’ category.

If those numbers hold steady over a 12-hour day, it would mean 1,248 trucks – although about half those would be empty.

One thing is for sure – a lot of people are making their living these days driving trucks. But word is – unofficially – that much of the Marten Hills oil from those new wells we’ve been hearing about will soon be moving via pipeline, rather than trucks. If so, a lot of truckers are going to be looking for work elsewhere. We’ve also heard there are several hundreds of truckloads of oil coming out of the Marten Hills Road every day.

The relative shortage of log loads might have something to do with the fact off-site storage was going on full-swing. Examples of that are in view on both sides of Hwy. 754, within two or three kilometres of the Hwy. 88 intersection.

Lotsa logs!

A Tolko log storage yard on the Wabasca highway, as it appeared on March 3. Logs are hauled and stored in locations like this during the winter, and then brought to the mill during the warmer months. It makes for a less congested highway further south in the winter months. However, area highways are plenty busy with other types of haul traffic these days.