It’s a project City of Lethbridge staff have been designing for more than a year — additional lanes are about to be added to University Drive.
“The west side… is growing every day [and] every year. It’s definitely well-needed,” said road infrastructure manager Richard Brummurd on Tuesday.
Construction crews are twinning the road between the community stadium and south of the Sunridge roundabout.
The city expects it to ease congestion of several neighbourhoods, including Riverstone and Paradise Canyon.
The start of construction doesn’t require any lane or intersection closures, but that will be necessary for the later stages of the project.
The partners of Jetz Car Wash are pleased the road twinning is about to get underway.
“For us to see more traffic out here [and] better development, it will be short-term pain for some of the traffic congestion we’ll get, but we’ll see a definite gain out of it,” said managing partner Cliff Campbell.
Campbell and his wife live in Riverstone and know how difficult it can be to access other parts of the city.
“It’s tough to get in and out at certain times of the day. It will definitely improve traffic flow and when you have good traffic flow, people are happier,” he said.
This is the latest infrastructure project aimed at tackling the evergrowing west side.
“We did big expansions on Whoop-Up and Metis Trail. Of course, this is the next one for the west side. I think we’re ahead of the game a little bit,” Brummurd said.
The city budgeted $10.9 million for the project and expects it to be completed by fall 2020.