Edmonton opens new Stony Plain Road bridge over Groat Road

The Stony Plain Road bridge over Edmonton's Groat Road on Dec. 1, 2024. (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton)

The new Stony Plain Road bridge over Groat Road is open.

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The span located between 129 Street and Connaught Drive, which opened to traffic on Saturday, had been closed for almost two years as had Stony Plain Road between 131 and 139 streets. Crews started work to demolish the old bridge in late December 2022 in order to build a new one as part of the construction of the Valley Line West LRT line.

The new, wider bridge supports vehicle, pedestrian, bicycle and LRT traffic, although it will be some time before Valley Line West LRT service begins as construction of it expected to take another two to three years, followed by an extensive testing and commissioning phase to ensure safety and reliability before the line opens.

Brian Latte, the city's director of the Valley Line, said Monday that Marigold Infrastructure Partners "made good progress" to allow the bridge to open on schedule.

Marigold is the contractor building the $2.6-billion Valley Line West, which runs from the downtown terminus of Valley Line Southeast to the Lewis Farms Transit Centre. It will have 14 street-level stops and two elevated stations.

Valley Line Southeast, which runs 13 kilometres from Mill Woods to downtown and was built by TransEd Partners, started operation in November last year after seven-and-a-half years of construction and testing. TransEd will operate and maintain the 11-station line, which cost $1.8-billion to build, until 2050.

Remaining work on the Stony Plain Road bridge over Groat Road includes a handrail, laying LRT track on it and the addition of street lights. As crews do that work, there will be "minor shutdowns" of one lane to complete it, said Jonathan Cox, construction manager of Valley Line West.

Cox said the project is "hitting its milestones" and that Marigold is "really confident" they will be able to finish the project on schedule.

He said the LRT bridge over Anthony Henday Drive is "significantly complete" and that work on it will be finished in 2025 as will work on the elevated guideway along 87 Avenue, which is currently complete as far as the station at West Edmonton Mall.