Street-level or elevated tracks? Province reviewing options for Calgary's Green Line
As work on the Green Line gets ready to roll again, the biggest question about the LRT project continues to be about its route through Calgary's downtown.
A provincial review of alternative alignments through the core is underway after the Alberta government deemed the plan to tunnel too costly.
"When you go underground, it's $1 billion a kilometre. If you stay at surface, it's $100 million a kilometre," Premier Danielle Smith said Thursday.
"So that's part of the reason why the cost is escalated. And so, we're going to work together to see if we can find a solution."
Though many details of the new version of the Green Line project are unknown, the province has made it clear a tunnel is no longer on the table.
Options to go through downtown "will be either at-grade or elevated and will connect into the Red and Blue lines, the new Event Centre and to southeast Calgary communities," reads a joint statement from Calgary's mayor and Alberta's transportation minister.
Street-level and elevated track options were considered by Calgary nearly a decade ago.
Ultimately, the city opted in 2016 to go for the tunnel option -- by far the costliest of the three considered -- due to public feedback and considerations of traffic disruption, property values, noise and even shadows caused by an elevated track.
An elevated line, which was considered to run up 2nd Street S.W., would also have to contend with some of the city's Plus-15 network.
Different alignment options come with different complications, transportation experts say.
"Our north-south streets are too short. They don't fit the trains that we have and one of the things that'll be very challenging on that is how do you reconcile that as part of what a new Green Line could look like downtown?" said David Cooper, a transportation planning consultant.
"Elevated, that's something that has been looked at. The city is full of Plus-15s, so how do we look at integrating the Green Line into the public right-of-way?" he said.
Former Calgary mayor and current Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi called the province's handling of the Green Line "a catastrophe" and questioned how much money could really be saved with an alignment that doesn't include tunnelling.
"They will be surprised when they realize that an elevated alignment doesn't cost much less than a tunnel," Nenshi said.
"Because we know this. We already did that research."
On Thursday, the City of Calgary and Alberta government announced it would continue with the planning, design and construction work of the line from Shepard to 4th Street S.E. in Victoria Park.
The review of alternative options through downtown is being developed by AECOM and is expected in December.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's response to Trump deportation plan a key focus of revived cabinet committee
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's promise to launch a mass deportation of millions of undocumented people has the Canadian government looking at its own border.
Who should lead the Liberals? 'None of the above,' poll finds
As questions loom over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership, a new Nanos Research poll commissioned for CTV News says a quarter of Canadians say none of the potential candidates appeal to them.
New technology solves mystery of late First World War soldier's flower sent home to Canada
In 1916, Harold Wrong plucked a flower from the fields of Somme, France and tucked it into a letter he mailed home to Toronto. For decades, the type of flower sent remained a mystery.
U.S. election maps: How did 2024 compare to 2020 and 2016?
Though two states have yet to be officially called, the U.S. election map has mostly been settled. How does it compare with the previous two elections?
Canada rent report: What landlords are asking tenants to pay
Average asking rents declined nationally on a year-over-year basis for the first time in more than three years in October, said a report out Thursday.
N.S. school 'deeply sorry' for asking service members not to wear uniforms at Remembrance Day ceremony
An elementary school in the Halifax area has backed away from a request that service members not wear uniforms to the school's Remembrance Day ceremony.
Remembrance Day: What's open and closed in Canada?
While banks and post offices will be closed nationwide on Remembrance Day, shops and businesses could be open depending on where you live in Canada.
Judicial recount for Surrey-Guildford confirms B.C. NDP's majority
The B.C. New Democrats have a majority government of 47 seats after a judicial recount in the riding of Surrey-Guildford gave the party's candidate 22 more votes than the provincial Conservatives.
48,584 space heaters recalled in Canada after burn injury in U.S.
Health Canada has announced a recall for electric space heaters over potential fire and burn risks, a notice published Thursday reads.