It’s been a topic of debate for years in Edmonton. What is the best way to build the LRT? Keep the tracks at street level, or go above or below ground?
The latest plan pitched by city planners will see trains stay at street level at the major intersection of 109 Street and 104 Avenue near MacEwan University.
READ MORE: Edmonton exploring idea of trenches for northwest LRT expansion
The plan for the Valley Line LRT was unveiled Wednesday night at an open house, where residents were asked to provide feedback.
“When we looked downtown, with the urban development in the area and the fit of an elevated guideway or the underground option, even though it does help with the traffic flow, it’s a larger footprint and a larger impact on the surroundings,” Eva Cheung, project manager of the Valley Line LRT, said.
“We understand that there will be some traffic impacts but we believe that through the network — the downtown grid network — we’ll be able to alleviate some of those congestions.”
Cheung said multiple options were considered for this busy downtown intersection, including elevating the tracks and going underground. She said planners also had to take into account the 107 Street crossing because of its close proximity.
“It includes considerations such as accessibility, urban form and integration into the area, feasibility, constructability,” Cheung explained.
READ MORE: Edmonton city councillors reject $220M elevated LRT option
The idea of keeping the trains alongside traffic sparked much debate on social media, with people expressing their opinions on the proposal.
According to the latest city traffic counts from 2013, 104 Avenue sees 36,811 vehicles per day travel through the intersection.
By comparison, the city estimates about 34,000 vehicles travel along 137 Avenue every day at Castle Downs Road. At this intersection, city planners have proposed putting the LRT tracks in trenches as a way to avoid traffic congestion.
Ward 1 councillor Andrew Knack admits he hasn’t received the specific rationale from planners as to why they don’t recommend grade separation at the intersection of 104 Avenue and 109 Street. He said a lot of factors are considered in these types of decisions.
“I want to know, what’s the total dollar amount when they were factoring that in? Based off that, what would be the anticipated savings of time at the key intersections? That was the whole point of these conversations,” he said.
“If you do grade separation, what’s going to be the impact for the savings of time. We didn’t want to solely make a cost decision.”
Knack said a potential challenge at the intersection is that it’s already so busy, drivers may decide to take other routes.
“The question is always: what’s the marginal impact? If it’s already at capacity, if the intersection is already rated as an F category intersection, really, how much can it improve things?
“Would we be better off taking that money and saying, ‘let’s improve all of the signal lights in the other parts of the downtown to make sure that there’s smooth traffic flow. Let’s make sure we’re enhancing certain additional parallel roadways that people might shift to.’ I think that’s part of the conversation you need to have at an intersection like that.”
READ MORE: Proposal would make part of Stony Plain Road a one-way street to save LRT costs
Newly elected Ward 5 councillor Sarah Hamilton said LRT is one of the issues she’s most passionate about and one of the reasons she chose to run for council in the first place.
She said it’s important to note the Valley Line functions differently than the current LRT lines.
“It stops at red lights. So it’s going with the flow of traffic instead of interrupting that flow of traffic and I think that’s important to understand.”
When it comes to other intersections along the Valley Line, planners proposed elevating the tracks at 165 Street and 178 Street along 87 Avenue. They said the tracks should be below ground at 149 Street.
With files from Vinesh Pratap, Global News.