Yellowhead Trail Upgrades

[The_Cat]

The westbound section of Yellowhead east of 62 Street is being widened to three lanes: https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/yellowhead-trail-50-street-to-north-saskatchewan-river.aspx

 

[Edmcowboy11]

Good to see, also though probably the easiest stretch on the whole Yellowhead to do work on.

 

[Freedm]

Ya, all the easy stuff is being done first but next year we should see the intersections at 142 st and 149 st closing which will make it free flow from the west all the way to 127 Street. 127 and 121 won't get touched until at least 2023, and the 66 street overpass won't start until 2024 so a lot of it is still pretty far out. The entire project won't be done until 2027.

 

[Daveography]

3 Options for Yellowhead Trail from St. Albert Trail to 97 Street, as well as an online survey:

St. Albert Trail to 97 Street | City of Edmonton

Planning, design and construction will upgrade the section from St. Albert Trail to 97 Street as part of the Yellowhead Trail Freeway Conversion.

www.edmonton.ca

 

[The_Cat]

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

 

[TagYEG]

Option one would probably be better if they could add an EB onramp that flies over the offramp between 127 ST and 121 ST (similar to Glenmore Trail WB at 5 ST SW in Calgary). Otherwise you would have a lot of traffic merging onto EB Yellowhead at the one onramp at 121 ST. 107 ST could be connected to 121 ST in a similar fashion to Option 2 to eliminate the weaving that would have to happen for people merging and exiting at the location north of Blatchford.

Option 2 has the St.Albert Trail merge too close to the 127 ST exit.

Option 3 doesn't seem too bad in my opinion.

 

[Daveography]

@TagYEG Welcome to the Forum!

 

[TagYEG]

Thanks @Daveography , I work in the utilities industry so get to be involved with a lot of City projects. I used to follow C2E a bit but didn't really contribute, so maybe that will change here.

 

[TimETown]

Thanks for posting about the survey. I was worried that 107 street, which I use, was going to be closed off completely. At least that's not on the table. I think I also prefer option 3

 

[The_Cat]

I like Option 3 too. One recommendation though is having an eastbound exit onto. 127 Street.

 

[CplKlinger]

As you might have guessed with the news about the Army and Navy ad spotted on Fort Road (it's gone now by the way), they're almost done demolishing buildings in preparation for the Fort Road expansion. Construction will start next year according to the city. Interestingly, the project also includes a dry pond and multi-use trail on the west side of the road (the dry pond will be on the site of the former used car dealerships), and a new sidewalk on the east side.

Here's a video produced by the city which describes the expansion. It has some illustrations of the underpass with the trail and sidewalk, and I honestly think it looks pretty nice. It's certainly a step up for pedestrians from the present arrangement.

 

[ION]

Great video. I''m also glad they kept the 66 St flyover in place. As a resident of Montrose it's the link that I typically use the most when leaving the district and the fact it takes traffic entirely up and over and out of the way of Yellowhead is a huge bonus. Especially since they are retaining the eastbound exit which is about the only other turn I make at that intersection. Trying to turn left onto the freeway here especially at rush hour can at times take 45 minutes... No joke. I've been stuck before... The advanced turn added a few years back improved the situation a bit but demand for that turn FAR FAR FAR exceeds supply at least during normal traffic conditions... I.e. prior to 2020...

 

[ION]

Having said that, I still support the long-simmering plan to build a new bridge over the North Sask at 50 St... That would also help filter the crosstown traffic more evenly across the area, especially if the city is unwilling to do what's needed in the long-term which is to make 75 St a proper freeway. The Mandel era administration made sure that can got kicked down the road and never dealt with much like the missing 87 Avenue transit tunnel/bridge that EVEN after the West LRT is built will still be needed since the #4 bus was running in the Top 5 most used routes for years..

 

[CplKlinger]

On the Yellowhead expansion project page, the city posts a PDF chart showing the status of each phase. It's a very useful reference, and I recommend that you keep tabs on it if you don't already.

Here's the latest version, updated in November 2020: https://www.edmonton.ca/documents/RoadsTraffic/YHT-EstimatedProgramSchedule.pdf

For comparison, here's an archive of the document from October 2020 so that you can see what changed since then: https://web.archive.org/web/2020110...RoadsTraffic/YHT-EstimatedProgramSchedule.pdf

 

[ION]

I vote for Option 2 except for the St. Albert Trail on/off ramp issue... Eastbound Yellowhead @ AHD on the West End is a classic example of bad design...