Canadians pissed at Trudeau… World record truck convoy blocks traffic in Nisku and Edmonton Alberta
Wednesday’s afternoon rush hour in Edmonton slowed down to a crawl in parts of the city’s south side and outside city limits in the wake of a massive pro-pipeline convoy that got underway hours earlier.
Shortly after 5 p.m., trucks in the west lanes of northbound Anthony Henday Drive, were moving at a snail’s pace just north of Stony Plain Road. The reason the vehicles were moving so slowly was not clear. The vehicles were blocking all three lanes of the freeway as well as the shoulders of the road. Nobody could get by.
Global Edmonton traffic reporter Lauren Fink said the convoy was causing “huge backups.” The same situation was unfolding on the east leg of the Henday, northbound, which was backed up from about Highway 14 to Highway 2. Another convoy was headed south and approaching Highway 19, which backed up traffic from just south of 41 Avenue S.W. to the Henday.
“If you are travelling through these areas, you are going to need to expect major delays,” Fink said.
Police told Global News they were trying not to deploy officers to the area to avoid further congestion, however, police were trying to direct one of the convoys off the Henday and onto Highway 14.
A 22-kilometre-long truck convoy got underway at 11:30 a.m. and made its way through the Nisku industrial area, where many oil and gas companies have been affected by the low price of Alberta crude. The convoy was organized to draw attention to the province’s struggling energy sector.
READ MORE: Nisku truck convoy and pro-pipeline rally ‘way bigger than expected’: organizer
While the cause of the later traffic backups was not confirmed, some Edmontonians took to social media to say the drivers involved in the convoy were making them late for appointments.
“How’s contesting the traffic on the henday in Edmonton supposed to help get the pipeline built?” read one tweet from someone with the Twitter handle @pube_780. “We’re all in the same boat, so pissing off your neighbours doesn’t do anything for the cause.”
“We r for the pipeline but we have hit this traffic mess north and south today and it’s very frustrating,” read another Tweet from someone using the Twitter handle @HickeyCarol. “Appointments were missed and upsetting a lot of people for the pipeline. All for protesting but do it in front of Justin Trudeau not in front of the people supporting it.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/4779469/pro-pipeline-convoy-traffic-edmonton-henday/