The city will make sure vehicles can easily enter and leave its new park and ride facility, says St. Albert’s director of transit.
Bob McDonald said that when it started preparing its application for provincial grant funding from the GreenTRIP program, it conducted a traffic analysis that showed its plans for the Campbell Road facility will do the job.
The plans for the Campbell Park Transit Station and Park and Ride call for almost 1,500 parking spaces at which transit users can park their vehicles before boarding a St. Albert Transit bus.
Access to the facility will be off of Campbell Road. Those travelling south on Campbell Road, towards St. Albert Trail, will have to turn right to enter the facility, while anyone travelling north from the trail will have to turn left.
McDonald said that the conceptual map put together in 2010 shows two sets of traffic lights on Campbell Road to help manage traffic, as well as two entrance and exit points for public vehicles and one private entrance and exit for buses.
McDonald said vehicles travelling to the Campbell Road facility will have an easier time than they do currently getting to Village Landing.
“They will be coming directly off arterial roads,” said McDonald. “There will be less lights and less other traffic that you will have to deal with. Right now to get to the one at Village Landing, you’ve got a couple of intersections to go through. We’re thinking it’s going to be relatively easier.”
The city will add additional turning lanes from St. Albert Trail, McDonald said.
“There has been the idea to add additional lanes there for buses and cars accessing this location.”
The Campbell Park facility is still tentative, as the city is awaiting official word on whether or not it will receive one-third of the estimated $33-million cost for the facility.
The province has said the lease for the land, which is technically located in Edmonton, must first be signed. Edmonton will lease the land from the province, which St. Albert will sub-lease from Edmonton.
Council is expected next month to get an update on the estimated cost of the park and ride.
Should it decide on a funding source, Edmonton will build its northwest LRT line from NAIT to Campbell. St. Albert will pay $500,000 for a study that will determine where a future LRT line from Campbell through St. Albert would run.
McDonald said negotiations with Edmonton were proceeding as planned.
