Valley Line LRT on target for 2020
Unseasonably warm weather has workers pushing ahead on rail bed
Edmonton residents will start to see the Valley Line LRT take shape next year, contractor TransEd says.
The first rail bed is being poured on 66 Street near 34 Avenue now, thanks to the December warm stretch, and the first rails are expected to be put down in February. The downtown tunnel is still advancing one to 11/2 metres per day and is expected to break through at the south end this spring.
The first rail cars are due in July or early August, and residents should see the first trains testing the track soon after.
“Bombardier is on schedule,” TransEd spokesman Dean Heuman said in his bi-annual update Wednesday. “(Trains) will be on the track before the end of the year to start testing.”
Construction on the 13-km line is progressing well and expected to open December 2020, he said: “Our timeline is good. We’re comfortable.”
TransEd took over parts of Churchill Square and 99 Street in October.
On Jan. 2, they will also close 102 Avenue from 96 to 103 streets to move underground utilities, reconfigure the road and lay track.
“This is the beginning of permanent change,” said Heuman, adding crews will maintain access to Canada Place and for pedestrians. Vehicles will be able to cross northsouth. The final design includes a two-way bike lane, tracks and one lane of eastbound traffic.
At Churchill Square, crews are nearly finished drilling piles before they dig down three storeys to build the connection station with the existing Capital Line.
The rails don’t touch, but passengers can transfer via escalator. That makes the signalling system much simpler.
RIVER VALLEY
TransEd crews ran into unexpected rock while trying to drill foundations for the north side of the Tawatina Bridge over the North Saskatchewan River last year. That was a setback, but they’ve solved the issue now and are “working very hard to move forward quickly,” said Heuman.
From the river valley, residents can also see work on the south tunnel portal — the concrete entrance lower down the river bank — where the tunnelling will break through this spring.
Over 98 Avenue, the supports for the elevated guideways are now almost complete and have been successfully tested for strength. Bridge supports on the river banks will also come soon.
In the south central area, the big 2017 focus was 83 Street.
“The entire west side of 83 Street from Argyll to 76 Avenue is probably 90 per cent complete,” said Heuman, promising to finish it in the spring.
Further north, crews will start work transforming the Bonnie Doon traffic circle into a regular intersection in January and have a better schedule regarding traffic disruption there in March.
Much of the early work will be done inside the circle, but they will close the north end of 85 Street soon. “That is a permanent closure. There will be a new side road that goes through that area.”
We’re already pouring rail bed right now down around 34 Avenue.
MILL WOODS
The big project here for early 2018 is the bridge over Whitemud Drive, which will require Whitemud Drive to close several weekends. The bridge girders get assembled on the road, then lifted into place as a large unit, said Heuman: “It’s going to be quite spectacular.”
Further south, crews finished extensive work on the underground utilities and pipes along 66 Street. Now all traffic lanes are in their approximate final locations and this will be the first location to see rail on the ground.
“We’re already pouring rail bed right now down around 34 Avenue,” Heuman said.