The Highway 3 Twinning Development Association is asking the provincial government to make room in the budget.

Members would like to see $3.2-million set aside to complete engineering for two sections of Highway 3 twinning – Taber to Burdett and Medicine Hat to Seven Persons.

The Association says it wants to see the highway twinned completely but is identifying those two sections as affordable for this fiscal budget.

President Bill Chapman says they are making “an affordable and achievable request within the limits of the current situation Alberta finds itself.”

Lethbridge Mayor Chris Spearman says “Highway 3 is an important piece of infrastructure that provides an enormous value to the entire province of Alberta and beyond.” He adds “the expansion of this highway is integral to ensuring the safe and efficient passage for some of the largest produce and food processing plants in the country.”

The province has already completed functional planning studies for twinning almost all sections of Highway 3.