Online roadwork info portal coming as southwest city drivers grapple with traffic

Southwest Edmonton is feeling the pain of construction season as the area councillor works to improve communication on road projects.

Traffic is snarled in several parts of Edmonton – particularly in the far southwest suburbs – as crews for multiple road construction projects work on different timelines and under different managers.

The standstills are not lost on city councillor Mike Elliott, representative of the southwest Ward pihêsiwin. Neighbourhoods located in his neck of the woods, such as Ambleside, Windermere and Keswick, are among the fastest-growing in the city – and are affected by several of these projects.

Elliott says the work needs to be done, of course, but he believes it wouldn’t be so painful for drivers if they knew it was coming.

The first-term politician is working with city staff to create a construction portal online so that “anyone in the city can access it and find out what’s going on in their communities and, specifically, their roads.

“It doesn’t alleviate everything, but I think the communication’s going to be much better,” Elliott told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the city’s transportation planning department said in a statement that the roadwork projects affecting traffic “include a combination of city-led projects, developer-driven roadway upgrades tied to new neighbourhood growth and projects supported through provincial funding partnerships.”

Those projects include:

• changes to the interchange at Anthony Henday Drive and Terwillegar Drive, including the construction of two exit loop ramps onto the ring road, a new bridge and a shared pathway/pedestrian bridge;
• several along Terwillegar Drive/170 Street from Windermere Boulevard south to 41 Avenue SW;
• the ongoing development of the Whitemud Drive/Terwillegar Drive interchange project that includes work on the Rainbow Valley Bridge, widening of Whitemud Drive, a bus-only lane on 53 Street and two new pedestrian bridges;
• LRT line construction along 111 Street in Twin Brooks;
• bridge construction on Ellerslie Road at 135 Street SW;
• road work along Winterburn Road/215 Street that has led to full road closures; and
• ongoing work on the northside to expand and widen Yellowhead Trail, and on the west end as construction continues on the LRT’s Valley Line West.

“We understand the challenges these disruptions create, and we appreciate everyone’s patience as the work progresses,” communications advisor Nicole Boychuk said in the statement. “The city’s challenge is that we are delivering unprecedented, multi-year city-shaping investments to build a resilient future network, while simultaneously managing record-breaking population growth and a return to pre-pandemic travel patterns.”

Some relief is coming in the Windermere area as a few projects are scheduled for completion throughout the summer, while others won’t be done for another year or two.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson