The province is looking at ways to reduce bottlenecks on Deerfoot Trail and says improvements to some interchanges could improve traffic flow.

Alberta Transportation Minister Ric McIver says it is important to get feedback from the community on issues concerning Deerfoot Trail.

“We get pretty regular feedback about the fact that Deerfoot is backed up lots of times for 30 minutes or a half hour in the morning so there’s no surprise that people want some improvements made and people are pretty happy about the fact that we’re actually going out and listening to them now and getting their feedback on potential changes that we are thinking about making,” said McIver.

McIver says the traffic flow at some interchanges in the south could be improved to allow better flow.

“When you talk about solving transportation problems, lots of times there’s no final fix, but I think you need constant improvement and if we can make some improvements around the Anderson Road, Southland Drive area, most people that use the road would agree that’s a very major pinch point, and if we can take some pressure off of there, that will be a good step forward,” said McIver.

He says the improvements could come soon if the money can be found in next year's budget.

“I think it’s good news for Calgarians that we are doing the planning work now. If we get it into the budget then of course we can go ahead with the engineering and schedule at time so it’s not there yet, in the budget, but we’re at the point where we can actually look, in a serious way, about finding a spot for it in the budget,” said McIver.

McIver says the priority is to get the southeast portion of Stoney Trail open which should also alleviate some of the heavy traffic on the Deerfoot. “When the southeast Stoney Trail opens, in a very few weeks or days, that give us that opportunity, that window of opportunity, to get in there and do some work, and we don’t want to waste that opportunity.”

McIver says the plan to return operation of the Deerfoot back to the city still exists and that will likely happen once the ring road is complete and improvements are made.