Calgary police crack down on construction zone leadfoots

Calgary police say there is a problem on Crowchild Trail at the Flanders Avenue overpass construction site, but it is not construction related.

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Staff Sgt. Paul Stacey says it's the speed of the vehicles going through the site.

"A lot of people are not slowing down there, a lot," Stacey tells CBC News.

Stacey is with the traffic unit and says there are several reasons police are concerned.

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"It's a dangerous area, the road configurations are different, the lane markings aren't great," he explained.

Katarzyna Kryczmanik drives the stretch regularly and says she usually goes below the posted limit.

"I never go 50 km/h, I always go 40 to 50 but it's always changing," Kryczmanik said.

"Sometimes they shut down two lanes, sometimes they shut down one, and the changing of the area where construction is, [it is] always changing."

Some say the construction zone is too large, and has been changed, which is frustrating to drivers. Charlie Pester of POINTTS, the traffic ticket specialists, agrees.

He says tickets handed out for drivers who believe they are well past the end of the construction zone are common.

"We see a lot of tickets where guys say, '… I'm already past the construction and the lanes have widened out so I'm accelerating up to that [regular] speed,' we see a lot of that stuff," Pester said.

Meanwhile, police say the safety of workers is paramount so speeding tickets in construction zones could be costly.

Exceeding a posted speed limit by more than 50 km/h will get you a ticket of $474, but that doubles to $948 in a construction zone.