In what could be called the year of the delay in Edmonton – when the Groat Road bridge girders bent and the Metro LRT line was stopped in its tracks – it’s perhaps remarkable the massive Northeast Anthony Henday Drive project is still on schedule.
"It’s going well. We’re busy. There’s a lot happening," said Allan Neill, CEO of Capital City Link General Partnership, a construction conglomerate formed to build and maintain the final section of Edmonton’s ring road under a public-private partnership (P3) model, for 34.5 years.
With 13 months until the road is slated to open, the project is about 82 per cent complete, said Neill.
Thirty-nine of the project’s 47 bridges now have decks on them.
He said the project is one-third greenfield development – building on open fields – and two-thirds brownfield, where crews are tearing down existing roads and bridges to make way for the new highway.
"On the greenfield section, we’re ahead of ourselves, and on the brownfield section, we’re still going to make schedule," said Neill.
The road is slated to open by Oct. 1, 2016, bringing relief for motorists navigating an ever-changing and slow-going route through the mammoth construction zone as they enter and exit Edmonton from the east.
The partnership has a long-stop date of Oct. 1, 2017 to put finishing touches on the new road.
For Neill, the Northeast Anthony Henday is a shining example of how the P3 model gives taxpayers value for money.
"The reason to use the P3 model is about risk transfer – a lot of the risk is transferred to the P3 proponents. Budget, schedule, quality control, safety – that risk all resides within our model, (whereas) in the traditional design, bid, build model, all the risk is on the taxpayers," he said.
"I’ve been building roads for 35 years … From a taxpayer’s point of view, this is better than sliced bread."
The scale of the $1.82 billion project is impressive.
Going in, there were 526 utility encumbrances that had to be either designed away, protected or relocated – and those were just the ones they knew about, Neill said.
"That, in and of itself, is huge," he added
In just one month this summer, workers put in 210,000 person hours at the site.
Neill noted that much of the work is being done by small, independent contractors from Alberta.
He is hoping to get 17th Street open to traffic in October and also hopes to have one of the bridges leading to the Edmonton Waste Management Centre open this fall.
Dealing with traffic streaming through the site is just part of running the project.
The partnership has to put advisories out and even closed the road to traffic at times.
"People get upset with us, but … you have to be safe," he said.
"We do a lot of our concrete pouring at nighttime to stay ahead of the heavy traffic."
Work will continue throughout the fall and winter, though the pace will be somewhat slower through the coldest months.
The 27-kilometre northeast leg of the ring road will include 18 kilometres of reconstructed six and eight-lane divided freeway and nine kilometres of new six- and eight-lane divided freeway.
It includes 37 highway bridges, eight rail bridges and two river bridges, and will be free flow – no traffic lights.
"We’re excited," said Ken Rosenau, director of operations at Rosenau Transport.
"Edmonton doesn’t have a very good record for moving traffic. It’s going to help our operations and save us time and money."
The partnership isn’t skimping on building materials.
Neill said roads will be made of a polymer modified asphalt known as super-pave and bridges of high-performance concrete.
"All of our decks and barriers are stainless steel rebar," he said.
He added that the P3 design standard is 25 per cent higher than conventional projects due in part to the fact that the road must be returned to the province in nearly new condition in about 30 years.
Carrie Sancartier, spokeswoman for Alberta Transportation, said the province is very excited about the road being completed.
"The Northeast Anthony Henday realizes Alberta’s vision to provide a safe, accessible and free-flowing ring road around the city of Edmonton," she said.
Neill said the completion of the ring road will be the culmination of work and planning that began in the 1960s.
"I think it’s something Edmontonians in general should be proud of," he said.
"We’re going to have a beautiful ring road completed."
The final leg of the Edmonton Ring Road project is slated for completion in about a year.
Photo: Eliza Barlow"
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