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Edmonton construction impacting trail users as well as drivers
WATCH ABOVE: When it comes to construction in Edmonton, many people immediately think of road detours. But this year, it's detours on River Valley trails that are impact many Edmontonians. Vinesh Pratap takes a closer look – Aug 5, 2016
If you live in Edmonton, you understand summer equals construction season. But this year, the detours and closures aren’t just impacting motorists; they’re impacting cyclists and runners too.
“What we’re seeing is consolidation of a number of major city-shaping projects happening in relatively the same location,” said Adam Laughlin with the city’s Integrated Infrastructure Services.
With projects like the Walterdale Bridge, the Valley Line LRT and the mechanized River Valley access, Edmonton’s trail system has been seemingly swept into the detour deluge.
“It’s a combination of those projects coming together that’s resulted in the need to do some detours around trails,” Laughlin said.
On a good day, the city has more than 160 kilometres of maintained multi-use trails. The River Valley is a top spot for runners, walkers, cyclists and rollerbladers.
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However, there are currently 27 permanent or temporary closures or what the city calls “cautions” on Edmonton’s trails and parks. Most of them are due to construction but several are caused by slumping, erosion, flooding or maintenance. At least 18 of those closures or cautions are in the River Valley.
(Map courtesy: City of Edmonton)“This is an inconvenience but the greater good that we’re going to get out of this is phenomenal for the city,” Laughlin said.There are a few major construction projects impacting trails, including the closure of the Cloverdale Footbridge to make way for LRT expansion and the new Walterdale Bridge. The latter has closed trails around the EPCOR generating station and Kinsmen Park for a couple of years. Complicated work on the 102 Avenue Bridge has also forced some closures of trails along and around Groat Road on and off for the last two years.“We appreciate we are … creating some detours, but we really think the outcome of these projects are going to be legacy type of projects for the city,” Laughlin said.Most Edmontonians are used to significant closures and detours on the roads, but in the River Valley?“I use the trails a lot,” Chris Szydlowski said. “I haven’t seen it to this level.”Szydlowski is co-owner of River Valley Adventure Co., which offers Segway tours in the valley and sits between the funicular and Valley Line LRT projects. He’s felt the impact of trail closures and detours.“It’s definitely had an impact as a result of the construction and these are our major two arteries that would bring people towards our business. We’ve seen a massive slowdown in it. We just had to diversify and find creative ways to make things succeed.”Szydlowski said the city is working with them to help, creating a new switchback trail to allow River Valley access as well as a new city Segway tour.The city used staff and video surveillance to track the use of the Cloverdale Footbridge before the LRT project started. It also created a survey to find out how best to reroute trials during construction.
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