The 2012 road construction season is wrapping up in Edmonton. While construction caused headaches for many motorists this summer, officials say it was a successful season, as most of the major projects were completed on time and on budget.
Fort Road between 131st and 137th Avenue was completed, and the Grierson Bridge was actually finished months ahead of schedule.
“Other projects include Whitemud Drive at 17th Street, (there were) a number of Anthony Henday Drive connectors that we finished up. The more notable (project) was 66th Street, that we closed last February to start with some underground work, and that 66th Street piece from 167th to Anthony Henday Drive was opened up a month ago,” explained Byron Nicholson, Director of Special Projects, Roads Design and Construction with the City of Edmonton.
“We’re also continuing with the Central Station/Jasper Avenue streetscape. That will be ongoing from the work that we started this year, and we will be continuing some of the surface work there for about another month or so,” added Paul Szczepanski, Arterial Roads, Roads Design and Construction with the City of Edmonton.
In total, 11 major arterial road projects, 29 collector road paving projects, and nine widening projects including bridges were completed.
“We’ve invested $146 million this year in major road transportation bridge projects,” said Nicholson.
Some projects seemed to drag on before completion but, officials say heavy rain in July hindered a few jobs, and crews simply can’t work around the clock.
“There are regulations and requirements to ensure that people are not getting over exerted in their work,” said Szczepanski.
“The contractors do, in the summer time, work longer hours. We do have things like the noise bylaw and things like that so, we have to be aware of adjacent residential properties because, if we’re working throughout the night there then we’re impacting people’s lives,” added Nicholson.
Due to some of the traffic backlogs some of the projects caused, the city is planning to review its construction procedures, to see if jobs can be done more efficiently.
“We will be taking a look at the work that we do, looking at lessons learned, and seeing if there are some improvements that we can incorporate in next year’s construction to see if we can get things done more efficiently, quicker, and reduce the amount of disruption that citizens experience,” explained Szczepanski.
However, he says motorists should expect the same amount of road construction in the city next spring.
“Next year we’re expecting to be about around the same sort of construction level. It’s pretty much normal, last year and this year, as opposed to the very heavy and active construction that we had in some previous years.”
A couple of the major projects the city will be starting next season include replacing the Walterdale Bridge and beginning a streetscape on Stony Plain Road from 149th Street to 158th Street.
For more information on the process of road construction projects in Edmonton, visit the city’s website.
With files from Shane Jones.