City unveils 5 options for reducing Deerfoot Trail congestion, but no funding available

Rush hour congestion on Deerfoot Trail is the bane of Calgary drivers from one end of the city to the other, and so on Fridaythe city and theprovince unveiled five short-term solutions to ease traffic on Calgary's major freeway.

Residents shouldn't get too excited though, as the city currently has no plans to act on any of the proposed solutions.

• New Deerfoot Trail interchange coming to south Calgary

"As for today, we don't have any funding available for construction,but the recommendations will help us in the future funding decisions, and they will help us to make considerations in the future budget cycles," saidJeffrey Xu, the project manager for the city.

The recommendations took into account more than 15 studies done on DeerfootTrail over the past 20 years in Calgary, as well as extensive public consultations.

They include:

• Creating southbound "basket weave" from Southland Drive S.E. to Anderson Road S.E. to resolve traffic crisscrossing while merging onto either Deerfoot or Anderson.
• Creating "jughandle" intersection at 32nd Avenue and 12th Street N.E. which removes a left-hand turn light and eases congestion around the off ramps.
• Restrict left turns at McKnight Boulevard and 12th Street N.E. to reduce vehicle backup on ramp from northbound Deerfoot Trail to eastbound McKnight Boulevard.
• Create northbound ramp connection from McKnight Boulevard N.E. to 64th Avenue N.E. to provide a dedicated lane McKnight on-ramp with 64th Avenue off-ramp.
• Create new northbound on-ramp from 11th Street N.E. to northbound DeerfootTrail.

The city said the criteria for the five options required the projectsto be designed and implemented within two years of being funded.

As a result, other problem areas like 17th Avenue S.E.,GlenmoreTrail and the Ivor Strong Bridge were not included as they require considerable infrastructure investment and don't meet the criteria for the short-term projects.

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