Planning for the LRT expansion to Campbell Road is moving ahead thanks to funding from an agreement between the federal and provincial governments.
The deal allocates $19 million to the preliminary design to extend the Metro Line from Blatchford to Campbell Road.
The City of St. Albert has been proceeding with plans to build a park and ride at the Campbell Road location and the dedication of the funds will benefit commuters travelling between St. Albert and Edmonton.
“I’m very thrilled,” Mayor Nolan Crouse said. “It is really reinforcing to us the importance to continue to build our park and ride.”
Since the planning for the park and ride has begun, the city has been met with logistical roadblocks and plenty of red tape. The purchase of the land has been a complicated process but the province has committed the land to St. Albert. The City of St. Albert has allocated $30 million towards the project and is now working with Edmonton to smooth out the details.
Construction for the park and ride is projected to start in 2017 and Crouse is hopeful that the facility will open in 2018.
“We have a lot of work to do with the City of Edmonton on design and getting the land deal done but I am still hopeful that we will do construction in 2017,” Crouse said.
The project will help to ease the commuter traffic along St. Albert Trail while reducing the city’s carbon footprint, said the mayor. Future planning for infrastructure within St. Albert hinges on this project, as the long-term vision includes extending the LRT through the city’s core.
“The way it is right now we are just trying to take this one step at a time,” Crouse said. “We have the park and ride at one end and we’ve got the theoretical alignment done up the trail.”
The Campbell Road LRT extension is one of 46 transit projects getting federal attention in Edmonton. Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi and Alberta Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason announced the multi-government agreement on Sept. 1 in Edmonton alongside Mayor Don Iveson. Projects within the city include maintenance to existing transit, expansion and planning for future infrastructure development.
Edmonton’s projects are estimated to cost $288 million with half the money being supplied by the federal government and a quarter each from both the province and the city.
The announcement also included funding for 17 clean water and wastewater projects across the province.
This is the first round of financial rollouts as part of the “Investing in Canada” federal funding project that will commit $120 billion to infrastructure projects over a 10-year period. The monetary support will be allocated to projects that develop social infrastructure, green infrastructure and transit.
Both Sohi and Mason highlighted that the investment is also supposed to help create jobs for Albertans.
Additional projects will be announced in the upcoming months.
