EDMONTON -- The overpass is planned to reduce traffic which is slowed daily from a high volume of trains frequenting the 50 Street railway.

Additionally, two lanes will be added to widen the road from Sherwood Park Freeway to 90 Avenue in order to allow for a greater projected volume of traffic to move more freely in the future.

Natalie Lazurko, Director of Transportation Planning and Design at the City of Edmonton, explains that trains are responsible for pausing traffic daily for several hours at the 50 Street crossing.

“In addition to the traffic volumes we also have the rail volume that is a particular problem at this location, in that, there’s about eight trains that cross through this location each day.”

50 streetoverpass

Currently, an estimated 35,000 vehicles travel along the corridor according to the City of Edmonton.

The city said the public can expect utility relocation and detour construction to begin 2021 and to last for about a year. Construction on the project itself is planned to start in 2022 and last until 2026.

The virtual information session is planned to take place at 6:30 p.m. You can register for the event by going to the City of Edmonton’s website.