CANMORE – A polarizing construction project on one of Canmore’s main road arteries will wait until at least 2025.
The Railway Avenue central project will be pushed back from its planned start of this year for another 12 months to prioritize other construction on Bow Valley Trail, refine the design and continue talks with area landowners and businesses that may be impacted.
“We’re focused on Bow Valley Trail and this will be an opportunity to see our first major road works project under this new framework for procurement and hoping by late summer to have a big chunk of this work completed,” said Andy Esarte, the Town’s manager of engineering.
He noted since making the switch, which allows tendering to take place earlier and put out requests for proposals rather than accepting the lowest bid, the Town can see if the format is successful.
“That’s providing an opportunity to work with the successful proponent to put together good plans,” Esarte said.
The additional year will allow the remainder of the design work to be finished, with Esarte saying about 95 per cent was already completed. He added there was still some intersection design work with signal phasing and interfacing with adjacent businesses such as The Drake at the Main Street and Railway Avenue intersection.
The Town is working with ISL Engineering and the Netherlands-based Mobycon to increase traffic flow with the intersection redesign as well as the design around Elevation Place.
“The whole corridor gets rebuilt. There’s obviously a lot of interface with existing development at Elevation Place, so getting all those details right for how they tie in is very important,” he said.
The project is estimated to cost $9.55 million, with $6 million for surface and stormwater work, $1.8 million for underground waterlines and $1.75 million for underground sanitary.
When Town staff return with a project update in September, any changes to the potential costs will be presented and possibly need further budget approvals if costs were to increase.
“We are getting an updated cost estimate based on pricing we paid on other projects, so that can inform fall decisions around budget time, depending where they come in,” Esarte said.
The street will undergo significant rebuilding with water main replacement, sewer main lining, stormwater improvements, full road rehabilitation, intersection, pathway and bus stop improvements and street lighting upgrades.
Council voted to add waterline work for $150,000 at a July meeting. The project had been identified in the Town’s Utility Master Plan, which had not been accepted for council approval at the time.
Council has since accepted the Utility Master Plan for planning purposes – despite two previous versions being approved by council – though the development industry has been vocal in aspects of the plan and how it relates to an amendment to the off-site levy bylaw. The development industry could appeal the bylaw within 90 days of the bylaw amendment passing, which would trigger a hearing at the Land and Property Rights Tribunal.
The project has previously undergone slight changes, with a central median being removed to allow for left hand turn access, additional turn bays being added and lengthened for the Main Street and 10 Street intersections, bus pullouts and sections of the cycling path and sidewalk being widened and the crossing at Elevation Place changed for increased safety.
The two intersections will use near-side signals, similar to the Bow Valley and Benchlands trails and Railway Avenue intersection finished during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While construction will have a significant impact on vehicle movement, the aim is to have one lane open for each direction throughout the bulk of the construction.
Esarte noted the work on Railway Avenue isn’t as challenging as upcoming work on Bow Valley Trail, set to begin later this month.
He said Bow Valley Trail has deeper utilities, making it “a really challenging utility project,” where Railway Avenue will have the sewers lined. Other than what he said would be “a couple of big excavations,” the underground utilities aren’t as deep as Bow Valley Trail.
Work on Elk Run Boulevard and Glacier Drive was originally expected to take place in 2023-24, but was pushed back to redirect funding costs to Cougar Creek flood mitigation after an additional $29.1 million was needed to complete the bulk of the project in 2024. The provincial government kicked in an extra $16.7 million, while the Town had $4.1 million from interest in past provincial funding and needed to make up the final $8.3 million.
The intent of the Railway Avenue project is to align with Town policies on promoting more active modes of transit such as walking and cycling.
The Town’s mode shift goals aim to have at least 40 per cent of non-vehicle traffic at peak times.
The central part of the project is the second phase, with a subsequent phase in the coming years going up to the north section of Railway Avenue up to 17th Street.
The 10th Street intersection was originally meant to be part of the central phase, but was pushed back to an upcoming year to focus on completing the Main Street intersection first.
It was identified in the Town’s 2018 Integrated Transportation Plan. An initial public engagement took place in 2018, with additional feedback provided to the Town between 2019-21. A subsequent online public engagement was open for about two-and-a-half weeks early last year.
When completed, the street is expected to handle more than 18,000 vehicles a day. The average is 14,000 a day now, with a peak of about 17,000.
“I’m really looking forward to this project,” said Mayor Sean Krausert. “While I’m a little disappointed the construction is begin pushed back, I think it’s being pushed back for the right reasons in order to make sure we’re doing it right.”
