The Province’s contractor is currently finalizing details on the opening of the south east leg of Stoney Trail, commonly referred to as Calgary’s Ring Road; a public-private partnership (P3) project with the Alberta Government and Chinook Roads Partnership.
Parker Hogan, Press Secretary to the Minister of Transportation says they are just waiting on routine safety audits that need to be done before the road can be open to the public. “The full expanse of the project, including the 17th Ave SE interchange will open in the coming weeks” says Hogan.
This new leg will allow traffic to flow from the Trans Canada Highway in the city’s NW all the way to Highway 22X in the far south via the NE/SE leg. Currently, the road ends at Peigan Trail. The hope is that the new roadway will alleviate traffic within the city, particularly on Deerfoot Trail.
According to the project website, Stoney Trail South East is 25 kilometers of 6-lane divided highway and includes 27 bridge structures.
The provincial government has recently confirmed that they are working on a tentative agreement with Tsuu-T’ina Nation to finish the ring road, connecting the SE and NW portions with a SW segment. Details of the contract have not been made public.
According to Hogan, the Tsuu-T’ina will hold a referendum, to vote on the agreement on October 24, 2013. Back in 2009, the band rejected a similar proposal by the government. The southwest leg of the project would lessen traffic troubles on Glenmore Trail.
Drivers travelling to the city’s far SE locations, past Glenmore Trail to McKenzie Towne and Sun Valley Blvd should be gearing up for a much shorter commute once the work concludes. It is estimated that this new roadway will cut the current driving time in half for those driving from Chestermere and beyond to these distant SE locations. A drive which takes 45 minutes today could take less than 25 minutes once the road is open.
