No gridlock on roads this year
City doing far less work than in 2011
There will be fewer detour signs around Edmonton this summer as the city’s road construction boom comes to a screeching halt.
About $123 million is being spent this year on 47 jobs, including bridge upgrades and paving collector and major arterial roads, as well as growth projects, Barry Belcourt, road design and construction branch manager, said Tuesday.
Last year, there were three times the number of projects and, at $345 million, almost triple the budget, he said.
One big reason for the drop is that work on the Quesnell Bridge and the 23rd Avenue interchange at Gateway Boulevard were finished in 2011.
Money had been borrowed against future provincial grants to boost construction at a time when the economy was slow and costs were lower, Belcourt said.
“Everywhere people were driving around Edmonton they were running into construction zones. We could have done more projects, but we basically ran out of detour routes,” he said.
“In some areas of the city, there was gridlock.
“We shouldn’t see that this year.”
In addition to improvements to the busy roads, there will be $125-million worth of renewal and reconstruction on neighbourhood streets, sidewalks and curbs, about the same amount as last year.
Alleys, multi-use trails and street lights will also be worked on.
The biggest single project starting this year is the $ 44-million overhaul of Jasper Avenue from 100th Street to 102nd Street. The work is expected to be done over the next two years.
The roof of the Central LRT station is being repaired to end chronic leaks, while medians on Jasper Avenue will be removed and sidewalks widened in the first stage of a plan to make it more pedestrian-friendly.
The road will be reduced during construction to one lane in each direction, detouring more than a dozen bus routes starting Saturday.
Officials looked at closing Jasper entirely, as happened with Scona Road in 2011, but this wasn’t an option because the work will take more than one year, Belcourt said.
“It’s going to be a huge disruption, but the key thing is we will be working with city sta (on such issues as) messaging,” he said.
“The public is pretty good … at adapting.”
Jim Taylor, executive director of the Downtown Business Association, is looking forward to the completion of the upgrades from 97th Street to 111th Street, which he hopes will happen within eight years.
“We’re going to slow the traffic on Jasper Avenue. The driving lanes will be narrower, the sidewalks wider. This is going to become a much calmer street,” he said, adding that the area will come alive as downtown revitalization continues.
“I don’t remember a streetscape that has had more public input than this one has … (the improvements) make it a place rather than a street.”
Other big road projects include improvements to 170th Street and 137th Avenue at Anthony Henday Drive, upgrading 66th Street from 167th Avenue to 195th Avenue, and an interchange at Whitemud Drive and 17th Street.
The Grierson Road Bridge at the north end of the Low Level Bridge and the 82nd Avenue Bridge across Argyll Road are also being overhauled.
For a complete map of construction, see www.edmonton.ca/2012_constructionOn-your-streets_30032012.pdf or see the city’s map on pages A18-19.