City of Calgary prepares for a busy construction season ahead

The City of Calgary is launching a new, one-stop-shop website to help drivers navigate the ever-changing road closures on city streets.

The Plan Your Trip portal gives Calgarians access to real-time traffic cameras, maps and estimated travel times to better plan the best route.

On an average weekday, the city’s road network sees 5.5 million daily trips with Calgarians traveling to work, school and out running errands.

Those trips can be significantly impacted during construction season as unexpected lane closures pop up.

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The city’s Traffic Management team acknowledges the delays and frustration construction causes Calgary drivers, but says the work is necessary, and points to the limited window of time to get it done given Calgary’s weather. The Traffic Management Centre monitors 200 traffic cameras 24/7 and is able to act quickly if there is increased congestion, a collision or other unexpected issues slowing down traffic.

Those teams are able to remotely control traffic lights to relieve congestion when necessary and reprogram lights based on historical data to mitigate impacts.

Although it may seem the lane closures are random and never ending, the traffic management centre says there is a lot of forethought that goes into approving a closure or detour, and crews take many factors into consideration including emergency vehicles that need to travel through the area, other detours in place, and will homes or businesses be affected.

The ask is Calgarians find a little extra patience this construction season as crews work to complete the necessary road upgrades for a rapidly growing city.