The skeleton of St. Albert’s future northwest roadway will soon be fleshed out, after the city hires a firm to undergo a functional study for a key roadway.
Neil Ross Road is projected to be a 1.3-kilometre main arterial road – which currently terminates at Costco – that will connect St. Albert Trail to a future extension of 127 Street coming north out of Edmonton. It is also planned to hook up with Fowler Way, an east-west arterial road branching off Ray Gibbon Drive.
Preliminary projections suggest construction for the road could start in 2028 and estimates put a price tag on the project of $12.1 million, according to transportation manager Dean Schick. The road will be fully funded through off site levies.
St. Albert’s bidding window on completing a functional study for Neil Ross Road closed Aug. 14, and Schick said this is the first step in materializing Neil Ross Road. He added it would provide the backbone for all future planning work on the roadway.
“Roadways don’t typically go from functional to construction in a very short time frame. They take time and resources to plan,” Schick said.
The study will take into account current segments of the roadway, existing area structure plans, future regional connectivity and how potential annexation land will play into it all.
Schick said there is a section of Neil Ross Road that would extend outside St. Albert’s current boundaries, into areas of Sturgeon County currently being considered for annexation.
Engineers will propose a roadway alignment, and ensure it meets Traffic Safety Act standards. The study will also conduct a high-level geotechnical investigation, which will determine what the ground looks like and what path the road should take.
An environmental review will also be a key part of the study, determining how construction might impact any environmentally sensitive areas and what can be done to mitigate those impacts.
The engineering firm will also be responsible for communicating with stakeholders, such as landowners whose properties the road may pass through, and other jurisdictions such as Sturgeon County.
The functional study is estimated to cost $70,000 to $90,000 and should be complete by March 2020.
Schick said on the heels of the study, the city would follow up on any recommendations potentially coming from the environmental study and then start on preliminary design work and land acquisition. He added the tentative date of construction for 2028 is subject to network demands and priorities.
“There’s a lot of demands on the municipality right now and so it’s kind of where things flow in terms of priority and enabling development, supporting growth appropriately,” he said.
As the work advances towards construction, Schick said a more accurate estimate for the road construction would become available.
Completion of Neil Ross Road is an important piece in not only encouraging growth of St. Albert, but also improving efficiency of the city’s current infrastructure network. Schick noted improving the city’s arterial network would will help improve flow throughout St. Albert generally, and reduce some of the short-cutting neighbourhoods such as Erin Ridge North currently experience.
“Ultimately, Neil Ross as an arterial will provide an efficient and improved route through the community, minimizing potential impact to current routes that may go through communities,” Schick said.
