The City of Edmonton officially kicked off its 2024 construction season on Tuesday, with more than 200 infrastructure projects being planned, designed and built this year.
City officials said there are currently more than 80 transportation projects underway, as well as 60 facility projects, 16 LRT expansion and renewal projects and more than 50 open spaces projects. Thousands of jobs have been created directly from these projects, the city said.
“2024 will be another busy year for construction in our city,” said Craig Walbaum, acting deputy city manager of integrated infrastructure services with the City of Edmonton.
“We understand construction impacts the roads and pathways residents rely on every day. We are grateful for people’s patience during our construction season.”
The city will break ground this year on the Warehouse Park project, which will see a parking lot turned into a multi-use green space between 106th and 108th streets and Jasper Avenue to 102nd Avenue.
Finishing touches are being done on Centennial Plaza, a renewed outdoor public space near the Stanley A. Milner Library that is meant to provide a vibrant space for people to gather in the downtown core.
Sharon Day, executive director of customer experience at Edmonton Public Library, said she’s thrilled to see the new space opening up next to the library. She hopes it will enhance safety and people’s overall downtown experience.
“The most important part of an exciting public library space that’s in the downtown core is vibrancy, right? So bringing people from all across the city and beyond to the public library and having a place to really come and gather is central to our vision and central to the core of what we do,” Day said.
“The more people we can bring in, the more reasons to bring them in, the more exciting spaces, the more people will come. It will be a destination.”
Some of the major road projects that will continue this season include the Yellowhead Trail freeway conversion and the Terwillegar Drive expansion.
The Valley Line West LRT is now in its third year of major construction. Substantial work will also take place this year along the LRT alignment, including the elevated guideway for the future Misericordia Hospital and West Edmonton Mall stations.
“I appreciate your patience, as your commute over the next few months may take a little longer than usual,” Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said. “Your understanding is crucial in making these transformative projects a reality.”
Work also continues on the Lewis Farms rec centre and park project, a supportive housing project in Holyrood and the three-year Hawrelak Park renewal project.
This year, 17 Edmonton communities are slated for neighbourhood renewal, with nine of those undergoing alley renewal.
“We’re fixing more neighbourhoods now than we ever were before,” Sohi said.
All of these projects are part of the City Plan, which focuses on preparing Edmonton to be a city of two million people.
“Part of the City Plan when we built it was really to focus on those thresholds of population,” Walbaum said. “Rather than a defined time, City Plan looks at (a population of) two million — and we do it in 250,000 increments. So we’re looking at a 1.25 million population, 1.5 and then up to two million.
“What we’re trying to do as part of our growth is look at how we keep up with that pace in population.”
Information on road closures and project timelines can be found on the city’s interactive traffic disruptions map, which is available on the city’s website.