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With traffic now flowing on the new Stoney Trail bridge over the Bow River, the completion of the Calgary West Ring Road moves one major step closer.
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On July 6, southbound vehicles began rolling over the partially-finished 500-metre span, which twins the crossing over the river above the west end of Bowness Park.
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That southbound traffic was shifted from the existing span that first opened in 1997.
“Rehabilitation of the northbound bridge will follow over the coming months,” Jesse Furber, spokesman for Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors, said in an email.
“Transportation and Economic Corridors aims to have the remaining work completed within six months.”
But the 11-kilometre Calgary West Ring Road — priced at over $1 billion — which will extend from the Bow River in the north to Highway 8 to the south, won’t be finished until Oct. 1, 2024, said Furber.
It’s the final link in the long-sought 101-km, free-flow Calgary Ring Road encircling the city that’s been five decades in the making.
In the meantime, “the West Calgary Ring Road will also have additional traffic movements available as of October 1st, 2023,” said Furber, who didn’t specify what those would be.
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Work on the final stretch of the ring road began in the spring of 2019 and is to include six interchanges and 24 bridges; it was originally slated to be completed in the fall of 2022, said the then-NDP government.
But in June 2020, the UCP government said that date had been delayed by two years, citing factors related to relocating an Enmax utility line, which required Alberta Utilities Commission approval, in addition to “considerations for the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Furber said the project remains on budget.
BKaufmann@postmedia.com
Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn
