Westbound motorists will have one less option at their disposal in the downtown core as 5th Avenue will soon revert back to exclusively eastbound traffic following a pilot project that lasted for more than four years.

The pilot saw road crews alter the flow of traffic of the two northernmost lanes of 5th Avenue, including the curb lane where parking is permitted at certain times, each weekday following the morning rush to create a temporary two-way road between 5th Street SW and 11th Street SW.

The project aimed to reduce congestion along 4th Avenue and 6th Avenue, both westbound one-way roads, but the economic downturn of recent years has seen a steep decrease in inner-city traffic that no longer justified the cost of deploying a road crew every weekday morning.

"At the end of the day, a pilot program like this is about $150,000 a year to run," explained Ward 6 councillor Jeff Davison, vice-chair of the City of Calgary's standing policy committee on transportation and transit.. "If we are going to spend that kind of money, we really need to be mindful that we are really impacting traffic. I fully anticipate we'll get some data coming back to the transportation and transit committee and we'll be able to figure out if a long term solution is warranted."

The lane reversal pilot project will end prior to the Monday, June 10 commute.

Davison says the City would explore reintroducing the lane reversal program along the road in the future on a permanent basis should downtown traffic congestion increase and if funding is available.

With files from CTV's Kevin Green