Councillors rekindle battle over Edmonton LRT expansion

A political battle may once again be brewing at Edmonton city hall overwhere the LRT goes next.

The Valley Line LRT, now under construction, is the city's current priority. That project will linkdowntown to Mill Woods in the south and Lewis Farms in the west end.

Extending the Metro Line to theBatchfordresidential area is next on the list. The Northwest LRT project was to supposed to be the third on that priority list.

But on Tuesday, afterexecutive committee discussed an LRT progress report,Coun. Dave Loken said he was worried thatother council members championing other priorities may push back expansion of the LRT into the northwest by 30 years.

"Certain councillors are trying to jump the queue on LRT prioritization," Lokensaid. "I've been a good team player here. I've supported everything up to this point. But I'm getting impatient."

• Edmonton councillors vie for new LRT construction in their wards

During the discussion, Coun. Michael Walters raised the recent announcement from the provincial government to build a new hospital at Ellerslie Road and 127th Street.

Walters suggested the city might want to revisit LRT priority plans as a result of that announcement.

The Ward 10 councillorasked that a report set to come before councilin 2018 be moved ahead toNovember 2017.

Coun. Bev Esslinger, who also represents a portion of north Edmonton, said she's willing to stand by Loken in the battle.

"The communities in the northwest have been waiting a long time for services," said Esslinger, who represents Ward 2.

Lokenpredicted LRT will become a campaign issue in the October election.

"If this gets political and I have to fight it out at council, then that's what I'm going to do," he said.

At the very least, the northwest shouldget bus rapid transit, said Loken.

To bring LRT or bus rapid transit north from Blatchford would require a bridge across CN land and Yellowhead Trail, city staff told councillors.

That bridge would cost $100 million to $200 million, said Nat Alampi, city program manager for LRT design and construction.

New evaluation process

A second LRT report discussed during Tuesday's meeting focused on new criteria to evaluate each intersection new LRT lines would cross.

Under the new criteria, city staff would compare LRT crossing frequency to worst-case traffic volumes. That wasn't done in the past.

When the Metro LRT line was first opened, there were traffic delays of five minutes during peak times, with drivers waiting up to 10 minutes to get through intersections such as 111th Avenue and Princess Elizabeth Avenue.

The city wants to avoid repeating that mistake.

There are already plans for some elevated intersections on the west LRT line extension, and city staff said one intersection on their radar is 142nd Street and Stony Plain Road.

City council is expected to vote on those criteria at a June 13 meeting.