The City of Edmonton is moving into the second of three phases of its accelerated roadwork this summer, to make room for the 14-kilometre second leg of the Valley Line LRT from the downtown core to the west end.
The city elected to shut down select intersections so the builder, Marigold Infrastructure Partners, can get work done about twice as fast as previously expected, instead of maintaining access and dragging out construction for a few more years.
Starting next week, Stony Plain Road and 139 Street will be fully closed to traffic for about nine weeks. There will be a partial closure upcoming at Stony Plain Road and 142 Street.
Roadwork will also commence on 95 Avenue and 156 Street area, resulting in some partial closures, but that won’t begin until road work along Stony Plain Road and 156 Street is complete.
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“We know this work is disruptive to commuters, residents and businesses, and we appreciate everyone’s continued patience,” City of Edmonton’s Valley Line West Director Brian Latte said in a statement.
As the project enters Phase 2, that means some construction will wrap up shortly in the intersections under Phase 1.
Traffic is expected to flow through the intersection of Stony Plain Road and 124 Street sometime next week ,after being closed for seven weeks.
“Thanks to favourable conditions, we’re able to open the 124 Street intersection on schedule,” Marigold Infrastructure Partners construction manager Jonathan Cox said in a statement.
“We recognize this closure had a significant impact on the businesses in the area, and we sincerely appreciate their patience during this important construction period.”
The three-phase accelerated plan began in April and is expected to wrap up by the end of November, resulting in significant traffic restrictions at key intersections and along busy corridors.
In a news conference Friday morning, both the city and Marigold said closing down whole intersections is a strategy they hope to adopt in future projects.
“Everything is different. Locations are different. Traffic impacts are different. If there’s something we can do to a location that’s similar that has the same results, then absolutely,” Latte said.
“This performed exactly as we expected,” Cox explained.
“I think, maybe, some members of the public had some skepticism — which was justified, based on previous projects in the city and previous performance. But, this is the new normal, I think for us, and we can deliver in these time frames.”
The work along the 104 Avenue corridor between 106 Street to 121 Street will remain ongoing throughout all three phases.
By the end of 2025, the city said Marigold aims to have all of the roads around the LRT in their final configuration.
Major construction began in 2021, and so far, the line is more than 40 per cent complete.
Marigold projects that roughly 60 per cent of the project will be complete by the end of the year.
The entire west leg of the Valley Line LRT is expected to be complete in 2028.
The Valley Line is a public-private partnership being built by Marigold Infrastructure Partners, which is made up of a team from French civil engineering and construction firm Colas and American technology-focused defense, intelligence, and infrastructure engineering firm Parsons.
Forty-six low-floor train cars for the line will be supplied by Hyundai Rotem Company.
— With files from Karen Bartko, Global News
