27 May 2007
Yard Shunted to City's Edge
CP's intermodal container yard between Gateway Boulevard and
99th Street on the south side will move to a new site on the city's southern limits.
Edmonton Alberta - A major interchange will be built on
Calgary Trail at the city's southern edge to serve a new CPR facility and growing residential traffic.
The federal government will contribute $75 million toward the $150-million cost, with the province and city each paying
$37.5 million.
"This project will help ensure that Alberta may reap the benefits of international trade," said Rona Ambrose, Minister of
Intergovernmental Affairs and Western Economic Development.
"It will improve truck traffic and ease local traffic."
Work on the interchange at the Leduc County line at 41st Ave. S.W. is scheduled to begin in 2009 and be finished by 2012. It will allow
trucks access to a new Canadian Pacific Railway intermodal facility to be built inside the city limits at 41st Avenue south - just east
of the CPR tracks.
There, containers arriving on railroad cars will be moved onto trucks for deliveries in Edmonton and northern Alberta.
Ottawa's contribution will come from its $1-billion Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, to improve
transportation to and from Asia.
The existing CPR intermodal facility, south of Whitemud Drive on 101st Street, now receives about 40 percent of its containers from
Asia, via the CPR line that runs from Vancouver through Calgary, said Jim Buggs, CPR's general manager of gateway and port strategy.
"All the growth is from Asia."
The new $65-million facility, to open in 2009 or 2010, will handle up to 360,000 containers per year, compared to the
current annual traffic of 123,000 containers.
Slow-moving trains entering or leaving the existing facility now block traffic on ramps connecting Whitemud Drive and
Gateway Blvd. That problem will end with the new facility, said Brice Stephenson, the city's transportation planning manager.
Train traffic at 51st Avenue, 61st Avenue and Whyte Avenue will not be reduced, he said.
The new interchange will carry 41st Avenue S.W. over Calgary Trail and the CPR tracks, said Rob Penny, assistant deputy minister of
Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation. It will enable turns in all directions to and from both roads.
This will improve connections with the residential areas of Heritage Valley west of Calgary Trail and Ellerslie east of Calgary Trail.
"It's a key piece of infrastructure for development in the southwest and southeast," said Coun. Mike Nickel. "Sixty
percent of single-family homes are being built south of the Whitemud."
"If we don't build it, development would stop and prices would go up."
Nickel sees "a good business case" for city council to help fund the interchange. "With so much money coming from other
orders of government, we're getting a good deal," he said.
Property developers have agreed to pay $10 million toward the city's share, Stephenson said.
The interchange was chosen for federal funding because "it was the Government of Alberta's top priority project," with
endorsements from the City of Edmonton, Edmonton Economic Development Corp., and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, Ambrose said.
Provincial funding should be certain because "this is part of our capital plan," said Thomas Lukaszuk, MLA for
Edmonton-Castle Downs.
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