The much anticipated 40th Avenue bridge and Highway 2 interchange in Airdrie is edging nearer and nearer to completion, according to an update provided by City of Airdrie project manager for civil infrastructure, Adam Carroll.
Carroll said the City has been working in collaboration with the province for a number of years to design and facilitate the construction of the project, with EllisDon Construction mobilizing to site in May last year to begin work on the overpass.
“Currently, [EllisDon] has a 30-month project schedule, and as of right now, we are on track and on budget, which is absolutely fantastic,” Carroll said. “We’ve just completed the concrete girder installation over top of Main Street and over top of the CP Rail right of way.”
He added the completion of the girder installation was finished on Feb. 28 and is a significant accomplishment for the crew, which in turn allows them to proceed with paving the roadways from the railway to Highway 2 in the coming months.
“It was a big milestone to complete, and it sets us up for success for 2022,” he said.
Starting in April of this year, Carroll said construction crews will be installing girders over Highway 2, which means the northbound and southbound lanes of the highway will be implementing detours to re-route traffic during night shift work.
He said it is a big collaboration and milestone with the Alberta transportation department to have reached this point in the project’s development.
“That collaboration is working really well [and] we have a great team assembled,” he said.
He added getting going on some of the above-ground construction work gives passersby a sense that the project is progressing as it should be.
“Just to have that work done gives a lot more visibility to the project because as of this last year, we’ve done a lot of earthwork and it’s not really visible to the travelling public,” he said. “When we get the girders up over Highway 2, it will make this project a lot more visible to that many more people.”
According to Carroll, one of the biggest challenges of the project to date has been realigning Nose Creek in the past year, which he added is a water body regulated federally by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
“We had applications and permits in place well before the project started,” he said. “However, realigning Nose Creek took a lot of work with a lot of different contractors and subcontractors.
“We have to be focused on safety and environmental safety first and foremost.”
He added the team had to be aware of the wildlife that was present in the area and to be cognizant not to displace them, which was a big hurdle that he said took approximately seven to eight months to complete.
“The entire time we were in constant contact with other contractors who were doing all of the daily environmental assessments, fish rescues, and sweeps for anything living in and around the creek,” he said. “It was a lot of extra work, but it was absolutely critical to the success of the project.”
As far as the project is concerned, Carroll said everything is going well to ensure both the $53 million budget and October 2023 timeline are being met.
“We’re confident with the schedule and we’re just happy that the collaboration between the province and the City and the contractor is going so well, and we have a great engineering consultant on site as well,” he said. “Which helps everything run that much smoother.”
