LRT construction done on 104 Avenue; roadway reopened

Traffic is now flowing in two directions on 104 Avenue between 105 and 121 Streets. CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach has the story.

Central Edmonton’s main thoroughfare 104 Avenue reopened to two lanes Monday after months of construction work for the Valley Line West LRT line.

• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News Edmonton, right at your fingertips

Traffic on 104 Avenue was reduced to one lane between 105 and 121 Streets in April so the future train’s track could be installed.

“Traffic’s moving more evenly,” noted Steve Pavlov, a Jasper resident who was visiting his son, on Tuesday.

“It was bumper to bumper. You didn’t know which way you were travelling. It was a nightmare.”

Some of that work will continue in 2026, but will be much less impactful because the track is complete in all areas where traffic crosses the line, builder Marigold Infrastructure Partners said on Tuesday.

“It will get a bit tidier. There’ll be some landscaping and that kind of thing, but this is the intent,” said construction manager Jonathan Cox. “The only difference now is there’s going to be a railway through the middle, so if people are not used to this, then I’d encourage them to get used to it because this is not going to change.”

That also goes for changes to left turn opportunities, he emphasized. Some of the previous opportunities to turn left no longer exist. All those that remain are prompted by a signal.

“Find the closest left turn to the one that you’re used to using and get used to using that one instead,” Cox said.

By the end of 2025, the West Valley Line project will be about 60 per cent complete, he estimated.

He expects all of the building to be done and testing to start in 2026 and hopes the city approves an accelerated work plan, like was used on 104 Avenue, again.

“We think we’ve demonstrated that construction can be done in a different and less impactful way and we hope to be able to do the same thing on 178th and 170th (Streets) next year, but it’s not fully agreed yet,” Cox said.

“If the city can trust us to go into an area, do our work, and be out by the time that we’re committed to, then they will be able to give us more of these accelerations.”

Accelerating construction work means closing more or all of an area for a project so that it can be completed sooner.

Also this season, Marigold finished the elevated guideway along 87 Avenue, traction substations for the utility complexes, and various roadwork.