Edmonton ends construction season as it eyes accelerated strategy for future projects
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As the 2025 construction season wraps up in Edmonton, the city is looking to speed up future projects by trying to replicate an accelerated construction strategy used for the Valley Line West LRT project.
Marigold Infrastructure Partners, which is designing and building the Valley Line West project, was given the green light by city council earlier this year to initiate the closure of several Stony Plain Road intersections along the line for weeks at a time in order to push through with construction work more quickly.
“We saw that taking a different approach can actually make a big difference,” said Mayor Andrew Knack, who spoke about this year’s construction season at the opening of the emissions-neutral Blatchford Fire Station No. 8 on Tuesday.
“As the northernmost city in North America and [with] a population nearing 1.25 million, we do face unique challenges. Our winters create a condensed season in which to complete much-needed projects.
“We know the city employees put years of work into designing and planning to make the most of our warm weather months, and so with their help we’re balancing the renewal and the rehabilitation of our existing facilities and systems of strategic planning to manage growth.”
The Building Edmonton Capital Projects Map shows that of the 226 projects the city has on the go, 95 per cent are on budget with 78 per cent on schedule.
The City of Edmonton says it’s been working on hundreds of infrastructure projects this year, from roads to bridges to parks, making for an incredibly frustrating year for residents and drivers trying to get around.
The 2025 construction season’s budget was $1.5 billion and included several multi-year projects, the city said.
Recent project completions were highlighted by the city like the opening of O-day’min Park in the downtown core, the Holyrood Supportive Housing building, which offers 63 units to assist those experiencing homelessness, and the Amisk Wâciw Âsokan, or Beaver Hills Bridge, which connects Edmonton and Strathcona County.
“The vast majority of those projects [have been] completed on schedule and on budget, as has been the case for years and years and years and years,” Knack said.
He said this past year the city completed nearly 60 projects, ranging from large-scale to renewal projects.
At the same event Knack spoke at, a city official addressed public frustration around construction, specifically talking about the Wellington Bridge replacement project, an example of a project where the city may use an accelerated construction strategy.
“[The bridge] was one of our assets that was getting old and aging, and we were keeping it to be able to replace it,” said Sara Nichols, deputy city manager of integrated infrastructure services for the City of Edmonton.
“By working with our contractor and simplifying our design, we’re trying to get in and out. And so we know that that closure has been very disruptive to people in the west. And so now that project is scheduled for 14 months, in comparison to the original [timeline] of 24 months.”
For the Valley Line West, the staggered closure of areas along Stony Plain Road resulted in all six affected intersections being reopened on or ahead of schedule.
However, some businesses were impacted and saw less foot traffic because of the temporary closures.
David Plamondon is team guide for Pe Metawe Games and the executive chair of the Alberta Avenue Business Association.
He said he believes the city needs to better partner with business associations to understand the impact of construction on traffic. He said he believes that if the city is going to continue expediting construction, businesses need to be consulted.
“It does have a direct effect on people being able to access those neighbourhoods,” Plamondon said. “It actively discourages people from going into neighbourhoods that are inconvenient, that do have a lot of detours, roundabouts.”
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