City councillors have decided to hold off looking at combining two extensions of the south LRT into one, long enough so they can get more data on financing and planning for southwest Edmonton. A report they were reviewing suggested combining the two legs as a single project would save $50 million.
The hold up comes down to provincial land at Ellerslie road. The two quarter sections, equal to about 320 acres, is a one-mile gap in what would be a continuous line from Century Park LRT station to the city boundary. That section of provincially owned land, where it is proposed a hospital will be located, does not have any preliminary planning done, said Nat Alampi, the city’s director of LRT infrastructure delivery.
The worry is, if the city plans the LRT through that land, but gets it wrong, “the future retrofit costs would likely outweigh any short-term capital benefits that we would see,” Alampi said.
READ MORE: Combining 2 phases of south LRT extension could save Edmonton $50M
Coun. Michael Walters doesn’t want a $50-million mistake on a wrong guess so he made a motion to have the report shelved for a year in order to lobby MLAs to get Alberta Transportation planners and other provincial staff to come up with some details.
Currently the concept for the first leg south from Century Park would see procurement begin in 2018, but the second leg would be a couple of decades away.
“When I look at 2039 to start the second leg of the LRT construction that’s not adequate, based on that growth,” Walters told reporters.
“So what we did today is ask for the whole story to be brought before council. How quickly we can hurry up the construction of that line so we have the whole story of residential growth – commercial and industrial growth – and transportation demands?”
He called southwest Edmonton the fastest growing quadrant in the fastest growing city in Canada, with building permits accelerating after a downturn in the economy. Walters said population growth is exploding with plans already in place for new neighbourhoods, but that land is only 15 per cent built out with more growth coming in the next decade.
“What’s amazing is, we stayed around 23,000 (growth) during a slump, so when we saw the ’16 census numbers we all thought we would have slowed down dramatically but we’re still basically adding the City of Leduc to Edmonton every single year, and most of that growth is in southwest Edmonton.”
READ MORE: Census 2016: 4 Edmonton ‘burbs are booming
Senior planner Peter Ohm said full build out in the southwest will happen in the next 10 years. He told reporters that means LRT expansion will be needed to help alleviate traffic jams.
“We’ve got to think more broadly about the network, and look at a number of options. Not only putting overpasses, not that that’s a bad idea on some parts of Terwillegar, so it’s a broader perspective that way.”
Mayor Don Iveson said the one-year break will allow them time to find out what finances will be available from the feds and anticipated carbon tax revenue from the province.
“We haven’t definitely said we’d go south but there is certainly a case to be made that we should go south, and if we do, we might want to go further than Ellerslie road. It’s hard to forecast what the dollars will be like in 2026 say, but we want to plan today so that if the dollars are there we’re taking to take advantage of them.”
READ MORE: Proposed south Edmonton hospital bumps urgency for extending LRT beyond Century Park
The updated report is expected to come back to city council in the third quarter of 2018.
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