Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain?

Road construction is exhausting.

That’s not a revolutionary statement but I bring it up because I’m hearing from more and more people about the ongoing road construction every year. This is particularly relevant because we don’t just have the regular road construction, we have that combined with all of the work happening along the entirety of the Valley Line West LRT route.

I’ve mentioned it before but I live on 156th Street and get to experience the construction of the Valley Line West LRT every day. I am very excited about being so close to the future Meadowlark Mall LRT stop but like many others, construction fatigue is prevalent.

While I’ve been happy with parts of the LRT construction (ex: bridge over Groat Road opening up on time, the construction of the pillars by WEM, and the bridge over the Henday), I’ve been incredibly disappointed in the pace of construction on the roads. It’s been surprising that the part of construction that hasn’t gone as well as expected is the road construction because that feels like it should be the easiest part to get right.

Although I saw far more progress on the roads along the Valley Line West LRT route in 2024, there were still examples where I was left shocked that work wasn’t taking place. I still remember a Sunday in September when I had to go to an event in Glenwood. I decided to bike so I could enjoy what was likely to be the last 20 degree sunny day of 2024.

So I hopped on my bike and decided to bike along the entire route and check out the progress with the freedom to stop a bit more frequently since I was on my bike. Unfortunately, there was no construction happening on this gorgeous 20 degree sunny day. I know it was a Sunday but considering the pace of road construction has been slow, I could not believe there was no one out. I went as far east as the Groat Road bridge.

What added insult to injury is while I was passing Grovenor between 142nd and 149th Street, I saw construction crews out in the community doing microsurfacing work on the local roads. That was an important project but the work they were doing didn’t impact the main roads and yet for the biggest project in our city’s history, crews were not out working that day. It was unacceptable.

This led me to making a motion back in October but since it was tied to a private report, I couldn’t discuss it just yet. Now that the report is scheduled to come back to the February 11th Urban Planning Committee meeting, I can provide you with some details and ask for your feedback.

The report coming is titled, “Valley Line West 2025 Roadway Construction Options and Impacts”. This report is looking to answer the question, what specific changes would have to be made to get all the remaining road work along the Valley Line West LRT route completed by the end of the 2025 construction season.

The answer to this question may require some bigger short-term changes. That could include 24/7 work. It could include closing down certain segments of road instead of keeping a lane open in each direction while crews try to work in between. All of those details are expected to be included in the report that should be available by around February 1st.

For those living in the west end, and especially those living along the route, your feedback is needed. How much short-term pain are we willing to accept in order to get the road work finished this year? So far, I have heard from a lot of people who have been asking us to ‘rip off the band-aid’ and just get it done in 2025 instead of taking at least 2 more years. I tend to agree but maybe I’ve only been hearing from people who share similar views and I want to hear other perspectives.

We have to understand that the short-term pain could result in significant impacts to our commutes, more than what has already been occurring. Are people comfortable with that if it means finally being finished with the road construction. There would still be work along the route after the road work is done but the impact would be far smaller since crews can work in between the newly completed roads.

What do you think? Feel free to share some initial thoughts now but please take some time to read through the report in about one week’s time and then your feedback can be specific to any proposed changes. To be clear, the meeting on February 11th will be about if we should make those changes. The current plan would likely result in two full years of road construction and so in order to change that, we would need to make the changes that will be proposed in the report. (I don’t have any advance copy of the report so I’ll learn the options at the same time as everyone else)

I look forward to your feedback and as mentioned above, my current position is in line with what I’ve been hearing and that is to rip off the band-aid and get it all finished in 2025. But I’m very interested in getting more feedback which is why I wrote this blog.