MacEwan NAIT route of LRT line approved

The route the new northwest LRT line will take from Grant MacEwan University to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology was approved Wednesday by Edmonton city council.

According to the plan, trains will go north up 106th St. from Grant MacEwan to the north side of Princess Elizabeth Avenue, just east of the Avonair Curling Club.

A temporary station will be built on the southern end of the NAIT campus, which may be replaced by a permanent station when the City Centre Airport is closed and the land is redeveloped.

Previously, the city had been planning to build the station at Kingsway Garden Mall, just south of the new location.

The new location for the station shows the city is serious about redeveloping the airport lands, city transportation general manager Bob Boutilier said.

"This is the first example of the city making a commitment where there really is going to be something on those lands," he said. "If I'd have left the LRT at Kingsway Mall, then people would have been saying, 'Are you not really serious about the airport?'"

The public will be able to have its say about the route at public hearings about all the proposed new LRT routes in November.

Construction of this section of the northwest line shouldn't generate too many complaints, Boutilier said, because the city won't have to expropriate any property and officials with NAIT and Kingsway Mall are pleased.

The city hopes to have the northwest extension to NAIT completed by 2014.