Your eyes are not deceiving you in Queen Alexandra, on 106 Street south from 76 Avenue. Yes, they have ripped out what appears to be a brand spanking new bike lane.
“I went out there and went, ‘They can’t be doing that?'” Councillor Ben Henderson said, shaking his head.
But there’s more to the story. Henderson confirms what crews ripped out was just a temporary installation that was put in, in a hurry last fall. That’s because the real road bed wasn’t ready.
The beginning of Edmonton’s six months of winter was quickly approaching.
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“We ran out of time last winter, so rather than keep the thing closed, they did a temporary patch job on top and put in temporary lanes. This is actually going back and finishing the work that they couldn’t finish because the snow came.”
It’s not as bad as it seems. Over the next few weeks on 106 Street between 70 Avenue and 75 Avenue, the city will be taking away the temporary bike infrastructure. Crews will redo the roadway work and then install the permanent bike infrastructure.
You’ll also see roadway reconstruction of the 106 Street and 74 Avenue intersection. The sidewalks, as well as the curbs and gutters, were completed last year and will not need to be taken out.
Henderson has taken a bunch of calls about what looked like the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.
“It’s annoying, frustrating, I get it.”
“It wasn’t a surprise that we had to do more work,” he said. “It was a surprise how big that work was that still needed to be done and just how much of the job was still temporary.
“It’ll be done by June, then the whole project moves further south.”
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