With the sun shining and the snow melting residents can mark the beginning of the country's other official season, as construction gets under way on a major commuting route this week.
The City of Edmonton closed 167th Avenue this week and it will remain that way between 127th Street and 142nd Street until October while crews build a completely new stretch of road.
The rural-style roadway is being removed and replaced with a three-lane urban standard road, with one lane in each direction and another down the middle for left hand turns.
The project is being funded by a consortium of area developers that have a host of proposed projects in the area.
Jody Hancock, the director of development, planning and engineering for Edmonton's transportation department, said the city worked with the developers to try and complete the project with the least possible disruption.
"We have worked with the developers over the course of a year or two to have them all come to the table at once."
That might provide little comfort to users of the road, but this approach is being used to limit disruption.
"It will be difficult for a short period of time for everyone that is used to using that road, but the benefit will be that it will be one year instead of multiple years."
Trail disruptions
Traffic disruptions will also take place on St. Albert Trail as Edmonton moves to finish work started during last year's construction season.
A final layer of asphalt has to be added for parts of the road between 137th Avenue and Yellowhead Trail. The disruption is expected to be relatively minor and only last a few weeks.
A much larger project gets under way further south, at 118th Avenue.
There, the City of Edmonton is paying for improvements to the traffic circle to move traffic more quickly.
"We are adding an extra lane north and southbound and then some other minor improvements to the alignment of the circle," said project co-ordinator Kelly Calvez.
"It will be a better flow through there for sure," he added.
The work on the traffic circle is expected to take two to three months once construction begins in mid-May, depending on weather.
