Crowchild Trail congestion: Calgary invites feedback on 7 options to improve traffic flow

Calgarians are getting a chance to help the city decide on the best way to fix a chronically congested section of Crowchild Trail.

Citizens were invited to a workshop Monday night to evaluate the latest list of possible ways to address the daily bottlenecks between 17th Avenue in the south to 24th Avenue in the north.

In recent months, city planners have refined an initial list of 17 ideas into seven preliminary concepts that are now being evaluated.

Project manager Feisal Lakha says Calgarians have been integral to the study.

"We collected well over 500 unique ideas for possible changes and upgrades to Crowchild Trail," he said.

"Those ranged from some short-term,quick-fix options all the way through to the long-term planning horizonwhere we're looking to meet growth and development objectives of the city for the next number of years."

• Two of the sevenconcepts involve relatively small-scale improvements to the north section, between 16th Avenue and 24th Avenue N.W. such as new ramps and turning restrictions and a more ambitious plan to build new interchanges at both intersections.

• Two of the concepts focus on the central section. One would see Crowchild buried in a tunnel from Kensington Road to University Drive N.W., while the other calls for a new interchange at Kensington Road.

• One concept involves changes to the Bow River crossing. It would see an additional lane added in each direction over the river, moving the Memorial Drive exit to the north, moving the westbound Bow Trail and 10th Avenue ramps to the right-hand side of the bridge, and lengthening the merging lane from westbound Memorial Drive to northbound Crowchild Trail up to Fifth Avenue N.W.

• The final two concepts under consideration focus on the south section. One calls for small adjustments such as adding a left-turn lane from westbound 17th Avenue S.W. to southbound 24th Street S.W., and adding bike lanes to Richmond Road.The more ambitious concept envisions reconstructing the bridges so that Crowchild Trail has more lanesover the Bow River.

Two more concept evaluationworkshops are scheduled.

The next runs June 18 at Sunalta School from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

After that, there will be a workshop on June 22 at the Red and White Club at McMahon Stadium from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

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