Valley Line West LRT hits construction milestone with section along West Edmonton Mall

The elevated guideway along 87 Avenue on the Valley Line West LRT has been completed. CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach has more on what it means for the project.

A major construction milestone for the Valley Line West LRT was marked on Wednesday, with all concrete segments being set in place for the elevated guideway along 87 Avenue.

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Edmonton officials and Marigold, the company contracted for the LRT project, celebrated the achievement by bidding farewell to the 400-tonne gantry crane used to hoist the concrete.

“It’s just a really impressive push,” Marigold construction engineer Zane Lazerus said on Wednesday. “That’s 224 separate heavy, haul loads coming up from Red Deer to our site.”

The elevated guideway is a two-kilometre stretch between 182 Street and 163 Street, which will connect the future transit stations from West Edmonton Mall to the Misericordia Hospital.

“It’s a huge milestone. You can literally see the progress that’s been made over the last few years here in front of the mall and the hospital,” Valley Line West director Brian Latte said, while pointing at the guideway.

“It was a very complicated piece of infrastructure that was built,” Latte added.

Weighing 60-tonnes each, the concrete segments were pre-cast and hoisted by the gantry crane into place and then joined together and placed onto piers below. It was an approach that Marigold said minimized disruption to the area.

“This approach reduces the amount of time to install the spans on site and therefore reduces impacts to the community,” Lazerus said in a statement.

With skilled tradespeople from around the world coming to Edmonton to lend their expertise, it took a crew of 14 people to operate the crane, according to Marigold.

“Once in use, the guideway will help minimize traffic disruptions on the busy roadways beneath by allowing the LRT to pass over major intersections and infrastructure,” Latte said in a statement.

More work is scheduled to finish the guideway, including the Overhead Catenary System, walkways, railings and adjoining transit stations.

The gantry crane will be dismantled and placed into storage before it is sent to its next destination and job. It will take approximately five weeks to complete the dismantling, said Marigold.

An accelerated roadwork plan that began in April led to a few road closures along the 14-kilometre route that sees the Valley Line West extending the LRT network from Edmonton’s downtown to Lewis Estates in the west end.

Stony Plain Road and 149 Street intersection reopens

A section of Stony Plain Road at 149 Street has reopened a week earlier than anticipated on Tuesday, after being partially closed to traffic on Aug. 15.

The intersection at 95 Avenue and 156 Street also reopened this past Friday, city officials said.

Traffic is still reduced to one lane both eastbound and westbound on 104 Avenue as work continues between 105 Street and 121 Street.

The Stony Plain Business Association recently launched a dining week campaign, offering discounts at area restaurants in hopes of enticing more people to return. Latte said the city recognizes it has been a “tough slug” for the affected businesses.

“I think the worst is behind them,” Latte said. “They may have some short one or two hour closures as they continue to work in the middle, but nowhere near what they’ve been facing over the last few years.”

The west leg of the Valley Line LRT is expected to be complete in 2028, followed by a testing period before the line is operational and open to the public.

“Can’t promise on when people will be able to ride the train, but all of the messy work certainly will be done by 2028,” Latte said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach