It’s a major roadway, and after nearly two years of work, Jasper Avenue reopened to traffic Wednesday – the city said that reopened roadway marks the end of the road construction season in Edmonton.
The barricades came down on Jasper Avenue between 100 Street and 102 Street Wednesday; just less than a year and a half after work began on the streetscape and Central LRT station, work started in May 2012.
Now, that section of downtown roadway features new, wider sidewalk, the centre median has been removed and the LRT station below will be repaired.
While the barricades on Jasper Avenue came down, and all four lanes were opened, work on the LRT station will continue into December.
“Our philosophy all year long has been to get as many lanes open as fast as possible, and that’s what we’ve done here,” Barry Belcourt with the City of Edmonton said.
However, the city admitted work on Jasper Avenue is not finished for good, benches and light posts need to be installed, along with lines on the road – and buses won’t use the road until December 1.
Plus, work on that section of roadway was the first phase of a three-phase project – eventually, it’s hoped sections of roadway east and west of that section are supposed to have the same update, but funding has not been approved.
“If we had a budget approved, we could probably start in 2016,” Belcourt said.
A number of other multi-year projects are expected to continue over the coming years, such as replacement of the Walterdale Bridge, the Queen Elizabeth II and 41 Avenue SW interchange, and Stony Plain Road streetscape.
The downtown streetscape wasn’t the only project on city streets, the city also spent $12 million on milling and overlay on arterial roads, $87.2 million on 25 projects on major arterial roads and $166.6 million on 5 projects on bridges and interchanges.
With files from Breanna Karstens-Smith
