Downtown Edmonton LRT plans tweaked

The city’s LRT expansion plans are moving ahead, and commuters are being asked for their input into how those plans will impact downtown.

An open house will be held this week to solicit feedback on plans for the downtown LRT connector, a portion of track that would connect the future street-level West and Southeast LRT lines.

City staff initially presented their plans last December, and at the time several community groups raised concerns about how the street-level trains would impact their surroundings.

"We heard some of the comments from the external and internal stakeholders in the city and took another look," says Adam Laughlin, director of the city’s Facility and Capital Planning department.

Based on that feedback city staff made some changes and will present the revised plans to the public on Thursday. Among the tweaks are modifications to how the LRT will approach from the west and from the Quarters area into the core.

"We looked at a different way of accommodating traffic on 102 Ave.," Laughlin says. "We also looked at how to accommodate the bike lane in a different way, based on the feedback we received."

The open house is scheduled for Thursday, April 28 at city hall and will run from 4 to 8 p.m. The public can provide feedback on the plan at a hearing on May 25.