Twinning of a section of Eighth Street south of Yankee Valley Boulevard was completed Nov. 10, according to Adam Carroll, capital project manager with Engineering Services at the City of Airdrie.
“They have reached substantial completion, which means the construction portion is done with the exception of minimal landscaping, line painting and pathway tie-ins but the road is open two lanes in each direction,” Carroll said.
The section of Eighth Street that was twinned runs from Yankee Valley to Hillcrest Way.
Along with construction of the actual roadway, Carroll said the other major component of the project was adding the infrastructure for future traffic signals.
“The traffic signals are on a separate contract so they start once Eighth Street is complete,” he said. “We’re doing an inspection (Nov. 17) for all the civil works that were completed with the roadworks. We’re going to be inspecting the bases, the conduits that pull all the electrical and then when that’s done we hand it over to the second contractor and they start the traffic signals.”
Carroll said traffic signals will be installed along Eighth Street at 40 Avenue, Cooper’s Boulevard and Prairie Springs Drive.
Widening of the roadway began Aug. 2.
The large, approximately $6-million project, was paid for by funds from the City’s levy reserves.
The project included construction of a four-lane divided roadway, new asphalt, construction of curbs and gutters, and underground work to install the stormwater utilities, traffic signals and landscaping.
Carroll said the work was originally expected to be completed by the end of September but was delayed.
“We had some conflicts with shallow utilities that were unknown at the time of design,” he said. “Shallow utilities are gas, power – those sorts of things. When we find them we design around them. There were a lot we knew were there and some that we didn’t.”
There are a number of other major construction projects going on in the city. The twinning of Yankee Valley Boulevard from Bayside Gate/Chinook Winds Drive to 24 Street began in early November, according to Carroll.
“That’s a multi-year contract. One of the outliers for that project was the approval of land disposal with Alberta Environment,” he said. “The City received approval for that in late October. Once we had that approval, we knew all we’d get done this year was the grading for the widening of the road. They’re going to be wrapping up that site for winter shutdown right away.”
Phase 2, which consists of building the roadway and installing traffic signals will begin in May 2017 and be completed by the end of August 2017.
“The entire road is going to be rebuilt,” Carroll said. “What’s currently existing there is going to be blown away and we’re going to be rebuilding the entire road and at that time we’re going to put all the conduits underground, bases to hold the traffic lights – it didn’t make sense to dig up the road this year if we weren’t going to put them in. It would have just made for a rough surface over the winter.”
Carroll said the work is necessary to improve traffic flow and accommodate increasing population and traffic volume in the area.
Future traffic signals on Yankee Valley Boulevard at Bayside Boulevard, as well as Yankee Valley Boulevard at Bayview Street, are expected to be installed by the end of August 2017.
The City is currently constructing a bridge over the CP Rail tracks along 40 Avenue, which is scheduled to be completed by April 2017.
“The bridge is coming along famously. We’re very happy with the progress,” Carroll said. “The contractor is doing as much of the concrete work that they can now. Concrete requires good temperatures for curing. The bridge itself won’t open until 2017 – which was the plan once the road is connected to Main Street.”
More information about roadwork taking place in Airdrie can be found on the City’s website at airdrie.ca
