According to Alberta Transportation officials, Thursday’s opening of the 52 St. overpass near the community of Mahogany is one of the final steps in ensuring the southeast section of Stoney Trail will be completed on time.
Ring road traffic currently extends from the Trans-Canada Highway in the northwest to Peigan Trail in the city’s southeast. As of October 1, Stoney Trail will extend its southeast reach to include a section of Highway 22X.
The only construction hurdle remaining for the project is the Deerfoot-Highway22X intersection where seven interchanges are being built. A dry month of August has helped the construction effort.
“That's the last big piece of the project that has to be completed,” says Alberta Transportation’s Gary Lamb. “There's still a fair bit of work to be done. There's 26 days left until the opening of the project, and we've seen their schedule, and if things work well and they get done what they say they're going to get done in those days, the project will open as we expect.”
When the southeast leg officially opens, the construction workers will not disappear from the area. The contractor still has another year to complete numerous landscaping and fence building projects which are not expected to impact traffic.
With files from CTV's Kevin Fleming
