Construction of a link between Riel Drive and 137 Avenue will be delayed until next year because the city’s efforts to negotiate a railway crossing aren’t yet complete.
Officials with the City of St. Albert had hoped to build a new stretch of LeClair Way this construction season, but negotiations with CN Rail have been delayed to the point that no building will happen until next year, said Guy Boston, general manager of planning and engineering.
He feels the impact on commuters will be minimal because 170 Street will soon return to normal and Anthony Henday Drive is slated to open in the fall.
“The pressures that everybody’s been feeling trying to get into and out of St. Albert are going to be relaxed considerably after Anthony Henday Drive opens up,” he said.
Part of the delay is happening because the city has been dealing with a CN rep who is working on rebuilding several railway bridges in the Slave Lake area that were burned down earlier this summer, Boston said.
The new stretch of LeClair Way will begin at the west end of 137 Avenue where it meets 184 Street/Sir Winston Churchill Avenue. That leg was originally thought to be years away, but the city had extra money left over from its Henday connector program, so the construction was approved last fall.
Project manager Larry Galye is still finalizing the design and costs, but expects to spend about $7 million on the road and intersection work, which includes about $400,000 on the railway crossing.
Because it’s a new crossing on an existing rail line, the city is responsible for 100 per cent of the cost, Galye said. The crossing will be at grade with gates, bells and crossing arms, he said.
The city will be responsible for building the approaches while CN will install the signals. The pending agreement will grant the city access and lay out a timeline for the signal installation.
“They had hoped to have the agreement to us by now but they’re so darn busy with all their other work,” Galye said.
CN spokesman Warren Chandler said the company doesn’t discuss issues that are currently under negotiation.
Mayor Nolan Crouse has been asking staff regularly for updates on the negotiations and wasn’t surprised to hear about the delay. He’s aware that former mayor Paul Chalifoux had to pressure CN to raise the priority of a crossing at McKenney Avenue when Ray Gibbon Drive was built.
“I’ll check with [Boston] to see if we’ve got to put some pressure on somebody,” Crouse said.
Crouse wants to see the road built as soon as possible because construction prices are low. The new road will also improve access and development, he said.
“The sooner that connectivity gets done, the sooner development can happen there,” he said.
The new stretch of LeClair Way is a needed link that’s going to improve access to Riel Park, said Ivan Mayer of the Riel Business Association.
“If we have to wait another eight, nine months, I guess there’s not much we can do, provided we get a commitment that it’s going to happen,” he said.
