Province cool to funding airport tunnel

The province is unenthusiastic about the idea of pitching in millions of dollars to help build a tunnel under a new Calgary airport runway.

The City of Calgary and the Calgary Airport Authority will cover $90 million of the tunnel's $287-million cost in a deal announced on Tuesday. However, the city is seeking the remainder of the funding from provincial and federal governments.

Trent Bancarz, a spokesman for Alberta Transportation, told CBC News that Calgary has already received $460 million this year in provincial grants for infrastructure.

"The city is certainly free to use that funding for this project. The project would fit the criteria for the grant funding and they're certainly free to do so if the city considers it to be one of their priorities," Bancarz said on Wednesday.

A source close to Jim Prentice, the federal Minister of Environment and MP for Calgary Centre-North, said the Conservative government is currently focused on deficit reduction.

The airport is building a new 4,270-metre long runway, which will include the closure of Barlow Trail between 48th Avenue and Airport Road N.E. in April 2011. The proposed tunnel would create an east-west access across Calgary's northeast.

The city has until March 2010 to convince the provincial and federal governments to commit to funding, if tunnel construction is to start as planned in 2011 at the same time as the runway work.

Without a written commitment from the two governments, the tunnel will not go ahead, and it's unclear how viable it would be to build it once the runway is in place.

Bancarz said the province has yet to receive any formal proposal from the city.