The city received more than $2 billion in funding for the Valley Line West and Metro Line Northwest LRT projects on Monday.
The funding comes from the federal and provincial governments, with the federal government kicking in $1 billion for both projects and the provincial government committing $1.17 billion.
“We’re thinking about what it will be like in Edmonton for a family to navigate from this part of the city in 20 or 30 or 50 years from now when this city is two million people, twice the size it is today,” said Don Iveson at the announcement. “Traffic will be brutal. There’s no way around it, except transformational investments in public transit.”
The city says the new funding will allow it to move forward for securing contractors to extend the Valley Line by 14 kilometres from downtown to Lewis Farms, and the Metro Line by 1.5 kilometres from NAIT to Blatchford.
It is anticipated that it will take about a year to pick a contractor for the Valley Line West project and another five to six years to complete construction.
It is estimated it will take another year to complete the design and find the contractor for the Metro Line extension, and an additional four years to complete the construction.
Construction on both projects is expected to begin as early as 2020.
