Last year was lots of activity, progress, commotion, traffic snarls and grumbling drivers on Edmonton’s Yellowhead Trail and Valley Line West LRT construction. This year, the activity, progress, commotion, traffic snarls and the grumbling of drivers continues.
From the Valley Line’s West Edmonton Mall Station, Yellowhead’s St. Albert Trail to the 97 Street segment and many tricky and demanding projects in-between, infrastructure construction is re-defining the look and life in Edmonton.
City planners, residents, commuters, contractors, hard hatted safety vested workers and heavy equipment operators agree – the Valley Line West LRT and the Yellowhead Trail are complex, BIG jobs.
“The conversion of the Yellowhead Trail corridor from an expressway with signalized intersections to a free-flowing freeway with grade-separated interchanges is one of the City’s largest-scale transformational growth projects,” explains the hectically busy and high-energy Kris Lima, director of the Yellowhead Trail Freeway Conversion Program.
“The Valley Line West is the single-largest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the City of Edmonton,” notes the enthusiastic Brian Latte, director of the Valley Line LRT. “The alignment travels through a constrained corridor of mature neighbourhoods and requires numerous utilities and infrastructure need to be relocated. This, alongside managing traffic through multiple work zones, adds tremendous complexity compared to a less constrained corridor.”
The Yellowhead Trail project is an overdue and essential link for the Edmonton area. Designated as Highway 16 in GPS definition, the Yellowhead Highway crosses four provinces and is an interprovincial route that runs from the Pacific coast of BC, through Alberta and Saskatchewan and into Manitoba, ending in Winnipeg.
It enters Alberta at Yellowhead Pass, travelling east into the Edmonton Capital Region as a four-lane rural Yellowhead Trail highway, marking the western Edmonton city limit.
The iconic, 24.6-kilometre (15.3 mi) expressway segment is a busy commuter route for Stony Plain, Spruce Grove and Sherwood Park, carrying more than 80,000 vehicles per day, with significant truck traffic to and from the industrial areas of north Edmonton.
“Decades ago, Yellowhead Trail was first envisioned as a freeway,” Lima points out. “As part of Edmonton’s Inner Ring Road, it’s one of the city’s busiest roadways and is home to some of the city’s highest collision locations. The freeway conversion is needed to accommodate current and future traffic volumes.”
With much finicky hard work, in 2025, the massive project is on schedule, “Thanks to the careful planning and collaboration of our project team,” she adds. “The project is expected to be substantially complete in 2027, with some minor work and seasonal deficiencies slated for completion in 2028.”
She points out important specifics that happened last year, such as the substantial completion of the segment from 156 Street to St. Albert Trail (SAT), including the removal of existing at-grade intersections at 149 Street and 142 Street, construction of one-way service roads parallel to Yellowhead Trail, providing access to businesses and nearby communities and significant upgrades to above-ground and underground drainage infrastructure to mitigate flood risks during heavy rainfall.
Other key project elements include the construction of a new noise attenuation wall along the north border of the Dovercourt Community and network improvements along 123 Avenue, 124 Avenue and 128 Avenue between 156 Street and SAT to better accommodate area traffic and provide improved access to the new freeway, and the widening of Fort Road, between 66 Street and Yellowhead Trail.
“Also, the widening of Fort Road to six lanes, lengthening the CN Rail overpass and construction of a new collector road at 125 Avenue and the new collector links of Yellowhead Trail, Industrial Heights and area businesses,” Lima says. “This development has boosted commercial growth with new development already underway.”
It may be early into 2025, but activity and exciting progress are also continuing on Edmonton’s colossal LRT.
Valley Line West is a 14-km LRT extension from 102 Street in downtown Edmonton to Lewis Farms. It is the second stage of the Valley Line, an urban-style, 27-km LRT line that will operate between Mill Woods in southeast Edmonton and Lewis Farms in west Edmonton.
“Marigold Infrastructure Partners (MIP) made significant progress last year along key sections of the alignment,” Latte points out. “MIP is building on that momentum this year, with important road and track work and continuing construction on the elevated guideway, facilities, stops and stations along the alignment.
“Last year, some key milestones were the reopening of the new Stony Plain Road Bridge over Groat Road and Stony Plain Road between 129 to 139 Street. There was also first track installation on Stony Plain Road at 139 Street and at the Lewis Farms Storage Facility, 87 Avenue, 156 Street and 189 Street.”
He emphasizes that complex work is on-schedule and happening, such as significant roadwork along the majority of the alignment, including downtown, work along the north side of Stony Plain Road between 149 and 156 Street and roadwork at other major intersections.
“Some key construction milestones slated for this year are completion of the elevated guideway between West Edmonton Mall Transit Centre and the east approach at 164 Street and completion of the LRT bridge over Anthony Henday Drive at 87 Avenue.”
Latte admits that, especially post-pandemic, MIP encountered challenging market conditions and some work took longer than expected.
“But with the tremendous progress, especially last year, the project is on target for construction completion in 2028.”
As with all construction projects, particularly major infrastructure like Edmonton’s LRT and Yellowhead Trail, there are unavoidable and unexpected hiccups.
“One of the more challenging components of the 156 Street to SAT project was completing the upgrades to the below-ground drainage infrastructure,” Lima points out. “Deep excavations with robust shoring were used extensively to minimize ground disturbance. A new retaining wall was also constructed on the eastbound off-ramp to St. Albert Trail, along with a noise attenuation wall adjacent to the Dovercourt Community. Completing several key components in close proximity while maintaining traffic through the construction area significantly increased the complexity of planning and execution for this section.”
The random mazes of orange pylons, metal fencing sections, the roar and screeching of excavators trucks, cranes, loaders, trenchers, graders and other construction equipment and crews of hard-hatted workers cause the detours and snarled traffic.
Of course, drivers’ patience flared, but the City and MIP maximize notices, advance warnings and commotion communication. It’s all part of the deal, especially with two such massive and complex construction projects.
“Maintaining traffic flow along the Yellowhead Trail corridor throughout the duration of construction has been and will continue to be challenging,” Lima acknowledges. “With extensive planning and collaboration, we strive to keep disruptions to an acceptable level.”
As Latte says with positivity, “When it’s all done, it will all be worth it! Valley Line West is a transformational public transit project that will change how we move and grow into a city of two million people in the coming decades. Building a robust transit network, with LRT as its backbone, gives people more sustainable options to access more of Edmonton.”