EDMONTON – According to the City, the majority of Edmonton’s road projects are on time and on budget – that’s despite a bit of a later start to the construction season due to the weather.
“The worst case scenerio is a late season start, a lot of rain and an early fall,” said Barry Belcourt, Acting General Manager for Transportation Services. “If you look around some of the trees are even starting to turn colour already. So even if you look at a late season start, a lot of rain that we had – I think in June we had 24 plus days of rain – overall, we’re not too bad based on all those projects.”
Several projects are complete or nearing completion. Saskatchewan Drive is one of them. The road was shut down in April so crews could put up a retaining wall on the side because of a slope issue. It was slated to re-open in June, but the rain delayed that until today, July 31st.
There is still some minor work that needs to be done on the road, however, that will take place in off-peak hours.
Other road projects already completed include the Rossdale Road Bridge, Whitemud Drive/17 Street Interchange and 66 Street between Anthony Henday Drive and 195 Avenue, which were carried over from 2012.
There’s still plenty more to come this summer, though. One major route that will be affected is 111 Street. Starting August 6, the southbound lanes will be shut down from the Whitemud so crews can repave all the way down to 37 Avenue. That project is expected to take three weeks.
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Meanwhile, work still continues across the city on arterial, collector and service roads, as well as bridges, interchanges and neighbourhood streets.
Fixing the potholes is also high on the agenda.
“A big thing that we’ve done this year is council – when we had our pothole issue earlier in the year – council funded approximately $21 million,” said Belcourt. “And that is allowing us to do work all across the city where we’re going in, grinding out the old ashphalt, putting down new. So that is underway across the city and it is a very positive thing to help out.”
It’s part of the $441.8 million the City is spending on 177 road projects this year.
“We know construction season can be a headache for residents, motorists, pedestrians and business owners,” Belcourt added. “We work hard to maintain access to businesses and residences at all times, and to minimize traffic impacts. At the end of the day everyone benefits from improved road infrastructure, and we thank Edmontonians for their patience as we work towards that goal.”
For a look at the construction projects on the go around town and in your area, check out the interactive map below:
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