Rainbow Valley Bridge to reopen fully in late 2024 before partial closure again in 2025

Construction is underway to widen the westbound portion of the Rainbow Valley Bridge. Feb. 15, 2024 (Matt Marshall/CTV News Edmonton)

The westbound lanes of Rainbow Valley Bridge have been closed until late 2024 as the city works on adding more lanes to Whitemud Drive.

The closure began on Feb. 12 as part of Stage 2 of the Terwillegar Drive expansion project. Traffic is being redirected to flow both ways in the eastbound lanes for the duration of the construction.

"Stage 1A and 1B are of course the expressway construction and Stage 3 will be Anthony Henday Drive," said Nathan Stelmach, the acting director of transportation infrastructure delivery with Edmonton's integrated infrastructure services department.

"This project includes… a new pedestrian bridge crossing Whitemud Creek and includes a new pedestrian bridge crossing Whitemud."

Currently, part of the bridge is being demolished so it can be widened.

Construction is expected to be finished in late 2024. Both directions of traffic are scheduled to be open for several months over the winter before the eastbound lanes are closed in 2025 to repeat the process.

"Then in 2026, we'll see some more miscellaneous road connections and landscaping and things like that," said Stelmach. "So we don't expect 2026 to be nearly as disruptive to traffic."

The project is expected to be finished by the end of 2027.

So far, there have been travel delays due to traffic being backed up in the eastbound lanes of Whitemud Drive and the northbound lanes of Terwillegar Drive, according to Stelmach.

Access to Snow Valley will continue to remain open throughout the project via the Rainbow Valley Access Bridge.