Work on $71.7M interchange at Canada Olympic Park to start in May

Construction is set to start soon on a major new interchange near Canada Olympic Park in the city's northwest.

The city held an open house in Bowness on Wednesday night to show off the latest designs and construction plans for the $71.7-million project, which will eliminate the street level intersection traffic signals at the Trans-Canada Highway and Bowfort Road N.W.

The city's Peter Rudolph says the schedule will be quite aggressive.

"There's going to be some short-term pain but in a year and a half people will see a free flowing Trans-Canada and much improved roadway network," he said.

The project is being sent to tender now, and the plan is to start digging in May for a completion date of summer 2017.

The city says the improvement is required because the intersection that feeds into Canada Olympic Park has exceeded capacity.

The project design includes a six-lane cross-section for the Trans-Canada and a single-point interchange at Bowfort Road. There will also be a six-lane bridge with dual left turns in all directions and two through-lanes in each direction on Bowfort Road, the city says.

A six-lane detour roadway will be in place adjacent to and north of the current highway for about 12 months while the interchange is being constructed.

Access to Bowfort Road north of the highway will be maintained during construction, while access to COP will be detoured through a temporary intersection, 500 metres west of the current intersection, the city says.