All-clear ahead for south LRT?
But council approval could hit speed bump on lobbying for extra station
Susan Ruttan, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Sunday, January 07, 2007
EDMONTON - Next month, city council is expected to give its final blessing to plans for the LRT line expansion south to 23rd Avenue.
Quick approval from council isn't guaranteed, Wayne Mandryk, the man in charge of the $595-million project, hastens to add.
Some Edmonton residents, for instance, may lobby council for an extra LRT station on 43rd Avenue to serve 3,200 students who attend the nearby Harry Ainlay and Louis St. Laurent schools.
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The opening of the Health Sciences station just over a year ago is expected to be followed by the new McKernan-Belgravia and South Campus stations in 2009.
John Lucas, The Journal
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Font: ****Right now that station isn't in the budget and isn't supported by Mandryk's transit projects planning team.
Still, Mandryk is hoping for easy passage of concept plans for the LRT line from 54th Avenue south to 23rd, so he can keep to his timeline for completing the giant undertaking.
Half of the south LRT extension, from the Health Sciences station to 54th Avenue, got council's blessing in 2003 and is under construction. The final leg to the Century Park station, however, needs its concept plan approved.
That plan will go to council's transportation and public works committee Feb. 6, with possible council approval the following week.
Until then, said Mandryk, no major tenders will go out for construction work south of 54th Avenue.
"We want to have a more definitive plan and make sure council's on board with it before issuing major tenders," he said.
The target for opening the McKernan-Belgravia and South Campus stations is 2009. For the stations at Southgate and Century Park, at 111th Street and 23rd Avenue, the target is 2010.
Achieving those targets involves an enormous amount of work -- an LRT tunnel, already underway, under Belgravia Road; another one to go under the southbound lanes of 111th Street at 61st Avenue; and an LRT bridge taking the trains over Whitemud Drive.
There are also stations to build. McKernan-Belgravia will have a pedestrian underpass under 114th Street. Both the Southgate and Century Park stations will be in the median of busy 111th Street, with pedways above the traffic connecting both sides of the street.
Buses are another factor. The South Campus station will be a major bus transfer site for west-end commuters, so a special bus lane is going to be built along Belgravia Road. South Campus will also get a bus-only overpass so that buses leaving the station can cross Belgravia Road without making an awkward left turn.
Three of the four new stations will be in major activity centres. South Campus is expected to be developed by the University of Alberta into a major campus with as many as 20,000 staff and students. Southgate is a busy, and growing, shopping centre. Century Park is going to be a 2,800-unit condo development.
The exception, Mandryk said, is McKernan-Belgravia, which will be a community stop, not a major centre or bus transfer point.
The south LRT project has been something of a cart-before-the-horse situation, because the funding came before the plan. Almost all the budget comes from a federal infrastructure grant program that started a five-year rollout in 2005.
Detailed planning for the four-station expansion is just now being completed.
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© The Edmonton Journal 2007
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- big problem apparently, but I suppose problems do arise when you're building a ~189 storey tower. 
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