Calgarians hoping to have their say on the next steps of the exploration of an extension of Memorial Drive will have to wait until next year.
According to the City of Calgary, the second phase the Memorial Drive East Functional Planning Study was scheduled for this fall, but has now been pushed to early 2023.
“There’s a lot of residents concerned with an increased amount of traffic, noise and dust created through the construction, and ultimately, their quality of life,” Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot told Global News.
The proposed project would extend Memorial Drive from the existing communities of Abbeydale and Applewood Park to the east city limits at 116 Street East in an effort to accommodate new communities being developed on the city’s eastern edge.
The extension would also include a new crossing of the CN Rail line and an east-west overpass across Stoney Trail, without on or off ramps from Stoney Trail.
According to city officials, the first round of public engagement this past summer resulted in some design features that “require further evaluation” so the project team can “understand the benefits and trade-offs of each concept.”
“Because there were so many new ideas that were presented and new concerns, administration requires additional time to put together some of those ideas into conceptual-type designs,” Chabot said.
The current plan is to bring forward those design concepts to the public in early 2023.
One of the concerns also identified in the first round of public engagement was the access from Abbeydale and Applewood Park to the Rotary Mattamy Greenway, which is on the opposite side of the train tracks. There is currently a fence separating the communities from the park, but a hole cut into that fence is regularly used as a crossing.
Chabot said the issue is not a new problem and there is work underway to provide multimodal access to either side of the CN Rail tracks.
However, some in the community feel the extension of Memorial Drive would be beneficial, including the Eastside City Church which borders the future roadway.
“If it goes here and goes over (Stoney Trail), it will take a lot of pressure off 17 Avenue (South) and 16 Avenue (North) at rush hour,” Frank Moody, a pastor at the church, told Global News.
The extension of the east-west connector road is part of area planning for the new community of Belvedere, which was approved by the previous city council.
Chabot said the study of the area will also explore whether a crossing at Memorial Drive is needed to accomodate the future growth nearby.
“That’s what we’re trying to get fleshed out through all of this, is to determine what the mobility needs are… and whether it can be accommodated through some other mechanism,” Chabot said. “Either via 17 Avenue, through mass-transit along 17 Avenue, to be able to move people in and out of the area.”
The design concepts are also expected to be presented to city council in 2023, however the project to extend the roadway doesn’t have funding allocated just yet.
For Moody, increased traffic in the area from an extended Memorial Drive could prove to be beneficial for the church as well.
“How many people drive to the end of (Memorial Drive)? Not many. Just the people who live here,” Moody told Global News. “People going by, they’re going to see the church.”
According to city officials, local community associations and other organizations will be notified about any open houses or feedback opportunities, once the timing for the second phase of the engagement process is confirmed.
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