Abstract Manager

In today’s fiscal reality, public sector clients look to stretch their budget dollars to build only what is necessary. It can be difficult to determine what components of a project are more important than others to include to maximize the value of the infrastructure investment. The City of Edmonton retained the CIMA+ led team, with Associated Engineering, for the design development and construction of the Terwillegar Drive Stage 2 project. A priority ladder process was created to help the City decide what the priority components were for their fixed budget. EHan Engineering helped facilitate the Priority Ladder value engineering process.

As a primary roadway in Edmonton, Terwillegar Drive has needed improvements to address long-standing congestion issues and commute times for Edmonton’s commuters. To solve these issues, The City of Edmonton implemented the Terwillegar Drive Program. This three-stage program will improve the Terwillegar Drive corridor between Anthony Henday Drive and Whitemud Drive. In addition to solving congestion and commute times, this project also includes the addition of a dedicated bus rapid transit between Leger/Ambleside transit centres and South Campus LRT station. Stage 2 of the program focuses on connecting Terwillegar Drive north of 40 Avenue to Whitemud Drive while rehabilitating and widening Whitemud Drive between 122 Street and Fox Drive, as well as the ultimate reconfiguration of the Terwillegar Drive/Whitemud Drive interchange and rehabilitation and widening of the Rainbow Valley Bridges over Whitemud Creek.

Going into the design phase for the project it was known that the ultimate plan for the corridor would exceed the available budget, but no one knew what components the City of Edmonton wanted or could afford to build. With the preliminary engineering complete and the project divided into 9 unique packages of work along with the estimated cost of each, a process for defining what was important to the City for the project was developed and the packages ranked for priority. The results were conclusive and helped define the scope for the rest of the design process.