The northwest communities of Dalhousie and Brentwood, and some of their respective shopping centres, are now connected by a pedestrian overpass above Shaganappi Trail.
The bridge, which links the Northland Village Mall and Dalhousie Shopping Centre parking lots, officially opened on Saturday morning.
“The community hass been waiting over 20 years for this bridge,” said Ward 7 councillor Druh Farrell. “When we discussed whether we needed this bridge at council, a lot of councillors thought that it was unnecessary. All we needed to do was pull up Google Maps and show the desire line, the pathway that had been worn by the number of jaywalkers, in this particular location.”
“It really made it self-evident.”
In 2011, the City of Calgary designated the pedestrian overpass a top priority due to safety concerns.
“Hundreds of people were jaywalking every day,” explains Farrell. “People were jaywalking to get to school, to get to places of work, to get to shopping. It was very unsafe.”
Farrell says of particular concern was the number of seniors crossing Shaganappi Trail on foot.
The $5 million dollar overpass was scheduled to be set in place in January but the project was delayed when a suspected miscalculation left a gap of several inches between the cross beams and the concrete ramp.
