Alberta infrastructure highlights for 2024

EDMONTON — With a strong outlook for Alberta’s construction market, 2025 is shaping up to be another productive year for the industry, reports the provincial government.

Alberta Infrastructure states 2024 saw a focus on further developing relationships with industry partners across various trades, backgrounds, specialties and sectors.

“In 2025, this work will continue through Industry Liaison Committees, roundtables and other opportunities that will maximize collaboration and productivity,” a statement reads. “Alberta’s future is strong, competitive and full of opportunity.”

Here are some 2024 highlights and forward-looking projects for 2025:

Schools

• In September, the Alberta government announced a generational commitment of $8.6 billion to build schools now. This investment will award up to 90 new schools and up to 24 modernizations or replacements over the next three years. A new approval process has also been given the green light and will accelerate project progression through development stages, reducing project timelines by as much as six months.
• In 2024, 10 schools were built across the province, creating space for more than 9,600 students in nine communities, including: Blackfalds, Calgary, Coaldale, Edmonton, Fort Vermillion, Grande Prairie, Langdon, Leduc and Wabasca-Desmarais.
• For 2025 another 82 school projects are underway, progressing through various stages of planning, design and construction.

Health facilities

• A standalone Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton remains a key priority with $20 million budgeted over the next three years for early planning.
• Redevelopment of Calgary’s Rockyview General Hospital Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit and Gastrointestinal Clinic were completed in 2024.
• Renovations of operating rooms and support areas in Rocky Mountain House through the Alberta Surgical Initiative (ASI) wrapped up this past spring. The government notes through the ASI, 31 projects are underway in planning, design or construction in Brooks, Calgary, Edmonton, Innisfail, Lethbridge and Olds.
• 53 health projects are underway going into 2025. This includes awarding the construction manager contract for the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre this past summer and making progress on the new patient tower and redevelopment. The procurement process for the RDRHC Ambulatory building is ongoing, the release reads, with contractor selection expected this spring and groundbreaking in the summer.

Government facilities

• The Lakeview Recovery Community in Gunn completed construction.
• Construction of the Calgary Recovery Community is anticipated to be complete in early 2025.
• The new $203-million Red Deer Justice Centre completed construction and will provide the community with 12 courtrooms when it officially opens in the first quarter of 2025.
• Another 20 new government facility projects are underway, such as recovery community facilities in Grande Prairie and Edmonton, and campus upgrades to the Yellowhead Youth Centre.

Capital maintenance and renewal

• In 2024, work finished on 85 CMR projects, including construction of the new reflecting pool and fountain at the Alberta legislature grounds in time for Canada Day celebrations.
• Another 212 CMR projects are underway at government facilities going into the new year, with an additional 516 specifically at health facilities. 

Public-Private Partnership (P3) awards

• In May, Alberta’s government completed construction of five high schools in Blackfalds, Langdon, Leduc and two in Edmonton.
• This bundle received a Silver Award for Design & Construction at the 2024 National Awards for Innovation and Excellencein P3s.
• Procurement is underway to deliver another bundle of new Alberta schools in Airdrie, Blackfalds, Calgary, Chestermere, Edmonton and Okotoks.
• The Evan-Thomas Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant in Kananaskis won Best Operational Project at the P3 Partnerships Bulletin awards.

Legislation

• In May 2024, Infrastructure’s Real Property Governance Act received royal assent. The act helps increase transparency and reduce red tape by creating consistent rules across government for the disposal of property, the government states. It also creates a centralized inventory of public lands and buildings.
• In November 2024, Alberta’s government introduced amendments to the Public Works Act that mandate payment timelines and invoicing provisions for public infrastructure work, helping ensure contractors and subcontractors are paid fairly and promptly.