Writer's note: This is the first in a series of articles reviewing major initiatives and achievements of 2017, many of which will have a major impact upon our future and will continue to make headlines in the year to come. It's a busy place with many stories to tell so we've had to go Reader's Digest for these capsules.

The year 2017 will go down in the books as a pivitol year of progress by the Town of Cochrane for setting the course for major improvements in transportation corridors after years of discussions, planning and negotiations. Here are some of the highlights.

Griffin Road Upgrade/New Bow River Bridge

Following years of uninterrupted rapid population growth that has seen the town's population almost double in 10 years, the long anticipated Griffin Road expansion began and the way was cleared for a second crossing of the Bow River. Beyond continual residental development and the birth of the Quarry commercial development, it's the town's first new major new corridor aimed specifcally at improving traffic flow through the community.

Construction started in June and by the end of the season major headway was made on upgrading Griffin Road from River Ave. to the Spray Lakes Sawmill Family Sport Centre. Work will resume in the spring. Meanwhile bridge design is well underway and construction is anticipated to begin in mid-2019.

The final hurdle was cleared by swapping land and agreeing upon bridge and road alignments with land owners predominantly on the south side of the Bow in September. It may sound like a simple matter but it's been a long-standing discussion, heated at times, that dates back to the turn of the century, long before Riversong was even a word.

Mayor Ivan Brooker took pride in reaching this agreement in the dying days of his administration.

"It has been a struggle and I'm just been thankful that the last couple of years everyone has finally come together and agreed upon its the need," he told CochraneNow.com. Once we all agreed on the need, we started the design and road alignments. It was a long time in the making, but it's a good day for Cochrane. We got it done."

All in with road work and the bridge, the project is estimated to cost $53.5 million, according to the town's current 10-Year Capital Financial Strategy. The town has set aside $15.4 million in its 2019 budget and that will bring the total expenditures to date to $31.4 million since 2015.

Hwy. 22-1A Interchange

Of course, the biggest announcement of the year was in April by the Alberta government to complete a major upgrade of the Hwy. 22-Hwy. 1A interchange, ending a discussion that also began two decades ago.

Alberta Transportation minister Brian Mason announced a massive $40 to $50 million upgrade to the interchange of Hwy. 1A and Hwy. 22. It is anticipated to be completed by the end of the 2020-21 construction season. It will include a twinned Hwy.1A under a twinned Hwy. 22 structure, a twinned Hwy. 22 bridge across the CPR main line, access routes to both Hwy. 1A and Hwy. 22 and a bridge across the Big Hill Creek on Hwy. 1A.

Once design and engineering is finalized construction could begin as early as fall 2019, and is expected to take about two years to complete.

Banff-Cochrane MLA Cam Westhead played an important role in getting done what two MLAs before him couldn't by constantly pushing the project upon Minister Mason. Westhead, though, says the it really resulted from a collective effort.

"I think this victory really belongs to all the people of Cochrane because it was something that they helped make happen as well," Westhead said in April. "There were a lot of people who wrote letters to myself and Minister Mason and it was something that we accomplished together. I'd also like to really thank Mayor Brooker for his advocacy. When you work like this for a common cause and put the interest of our constituents first it just shows you what can be accomplished and when it happens we can achieve great things."

Now, the town is pushing for the twinning of Hwy. 1A through the community complement the interchange development.

CP Tracks Pedestrian Crossings

Talks between the town and CP Rail took a major swing in the right direction in 2017 and progress is being made to establish two pedestrian crossings along the CP mainline: one in the west end; the other connecting Railway St and 1st St. W. in the Historic Downtown.

A grade separated pedestrian crossing is being supported by CP in the downtown corridor and the design is being finalized by the town. CP will be backing the town's push for a federal government grant to assist with the project. The town anticipates the project will cost $7.7 million.

In the meantime, the town has budgeted $160,000 to close the gaps in fencing along the CP mainline through the downtown area, including locking gates.

The biggest swing in position by the international corporation came in August when it agreed to a pedestrian crossing on the westside between West Pointe Manor and West Terrace, known as the Horse Creek Crossing.

It may take up to a year to be approved by the federal regulators, but the crossing is considering an important connection for the town's trail system.

At the time, Mayor Brooker said the town had continued to build a stronger relationship with CP over the last few years, but the greenlight may have been also aided by the number of people illegally crossing there.

"I think our consistent pressure was compounded by the amount of people I understand were illegally crossing," said Brooker at the time. "They probably helped our case. CP Rail Police were making it an issue and instead of just arguing with us, they're now saying we'll grant the crossing."

The town has set aside $1.4 million in its 2018 capital budget for the Horse Creek Crossing.

Expanding Scope of Centre Avenue Crossing Planning/Parking Study

The new town council made its first major decision on transportation corridors by expanding the scope of a engineering study for the grade separated Centre Avenue railway crossing to include a more comprehensive look at ways to improve traffic flows through the downtown corridor.

The Centre Ave. engineering report will now look at ways of improving traffic flow from Hwy. 1A to Railway and Centre Ave. to 5th and council increased the budget to $303,500 from $173,500 to make it possible.

"That doesn't mean we're advancing a grade separation design right now," explained Infrastructure senior manager Rick Deans. "We want to look at that corridor and see how potentially we could enhance it."

Prior to this, the need for a downtown parking study was championed by town councilor Tara McFadden in the spring and is now underway. Extensive data on parking was collected both by foot and by air. It became the first project the town utilized drones to help collect data.

"We're a growing community, a prosperous community and we trying to draw more people into our downtown core to live and work here so businesses can do well. We also need to make sure we have a parking strategy that makes that possible," said McFadden in April. "We need to make it easy for our residents to get into our downtown core and easy for people who shop here to get into our downtown core and support our local businesses."

The strategy is expected to be presented to council in 2018.

The town has also OKed $272,000 to complete pre-design for upgrades to the George Fox Trail with construction anticipated for 2019.

Next up: A Changing Political Landscape