Abstract Manager

50^th Street is a key north/south arterial road in the City of Edmonton that functions as both a major goods movement and commuter corridor. The existing at-grade CPKC railway crossing presented a major bottleneck to traffic movements, with an average of 25 daily back-and-forth train movements resulting in an average delay of 4 minutes (with some delays as long as 15 minutes) for travelers. 

The 50^th Street widening and grade separation project is constructing two (2) new overpass structures to eliminate the at-grade crossing and widening 50^th Street to three (3) travel lanes in each direction within the project limits. Due to the urban location, the project faced several unique challenges including space and land constraints, traffic management, and numerous existing overhead and underground utilities.

Existing utilities presented a particularly significant risk and challenge to the project, both in terms of schedule and cost.  The existing utilities included gas, water, telecommunications, and electricity owned by 11 different entities. These conflicting utilities needed to be abandoned, removed, and/or relocated while maintaining existing traffic capacity  while maintaining two lanes of traffic in each direction to minimize disruptions.

Several strategies were implemented to mitigate these risks and keep the project on track, including the execution of an “Early Works” Contract where conflicting utilities were addressed prior to the start of main construction for the overpasses. A combination of different construction methods including open trenching as well as trenchless installations (HDD) and targeted traffic closures and restrictions were utilized to minimize disruptions to traffic and nearby businesses.

Early and careful planning and coordination combined with the successful execution of the Early Works Contract resulted in most of the conflicting utilities being cleared prior to the start of construction of the overpasses, allowing the project to stay on schedule.