17th Avenue rebuild restarts this spring

Construction season is right around the soon-to-be detoured corner, and the city is warning residents that the massive 17thAvenue S. rebuild is about to restart.

The major, multi-year overhaul of the roadincluding utilities, sidewalks, crosswalks and light polesstarted last year and is moving from east to west.

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Construction is planned to restart in mid-April, if the weather co-operates.

The majority of the work and the biggest impact will be inthe area between Fifth Street S.W. and Eighth Street S.W. The area is largely considered to be the heart of Calgary's Red Mile.

Crews will also be putting the finishing touches on the area stretching from Macleod Trail to Fifth Street S.W.

In order to prepare residents, the city is hostingpublic information sessions at the Kahanoff Centre on April 4 and 7 to outline construction schedules and provideinformation on how to access the area.

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The city saysthe massive restoration will transform the avenue into a world-class urban destination, but it will impact shops and businesses during construction.

To helpease the strain on area businesses, the city's senior transportation engineer Peter Rudolfsays they're going to be doing something a little innovative starting right around Stampede.

"We're shutting down for two months and letting the business community carry on with their patio season and their hosting of weddings and so on, and then we're back on site on Sept. 4," he said.

Many businesses in Calgary's core have alsonot recovered from the recent recession.

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