Churchill Square construction disruptions to last until 2019: TransEd

Churchill Square will be darker this December as the annual Holiday Light Up festivities are put on hold. It will also be noisier as workon the new Valley Line LRT ramps up under the square.

Residents can expect the noise of cranes and trucks to continue until spring2019, as TransEd builds the underground connectorthat will link the new light-rail line to the existing Capital and Metro Lines.

The southeast leg of the Valley Line, expected to open by the end of 2020will link downtown to Mill Woods Town Centre.

For the work to be done safely, eight-foot construction walls have gone up along 102nd Avenueon the south end of the square, and 99th Streeton the east side.

"The whole point of getting the hoarding [walls] around it was to keep the chaos and the mess behind the walls," Dean Heuman, manager ofstakeholder relations with TransEd, said Thursday.

"Construction is not clean. We're going to have a large crane in there and we're going to have other machinery in thereand that can really be distracting to downtown."

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The hoarding wall on99thStreet is directly in front ofL'EspressoCaf, blocking people from parking in front of the business.

KellyZeidan, the coffee shop's owner, toldCBCNews he is concerned about losing business because of the construction.

To compensate for that, the city and TransEd have put up signs on thewallsletting people know the businesses are still open.

Art on thewalls

"We're also going to do some artwork on the hoarding," Heuman said. "Try to make it a more pleasurable experience to walk around it."

He said TransEdin conjunction with the Art Gallery of Alberta and local groups like iHuman and the Edmonton Arts Council isworking on plans for an outdoor art gallery along the walls.

Heuman said TransEd and the city acknowledge that the construction is an inconvenience.

"We're trying to keep it as nice and clean and tidy as possible out frontso people can still enjoy that space."

The Downtown Business Association last week announced the annual Holiday Light Up will go onhiatus this year.

• LRT construction means lights out for Christmas tree in Churchill Square until 2019