City to look at road-widening restrictions in neighbourhoods

As Edmonton's population grows and causes problems with traffic congestion, one councillor says the city needs a faster way to widen neighbourhood access roads.

City administration is being asked to assess a 20-year-old policy on road-widening after a motion was introduced at city council Tuesday.

Currently, the city builds single-lane roads into new neighbourhoods and uses vehicle counts to determine when there’s enough traffic to warrant an expansion to four lanes.

The marker currently puts that at 18,000 vehicles per day.

But Coun. Jo-Anne Wright says some sections of 17 Street in her ward see 38,000 vehicles per day and are still not being prioritized for widening.

“It might have worked well 20 years ago, but it’s not working for us now, and it’s not working for us moving into the future as well as we grow,” said Wright.

Multiple deadly crashes have occurred on 17 Street in the last decade as traffic volume has increased.

“In that many-year period between when it’s actually brought up to the right standard, is that – there’s a lot of congestion, a lot of safety concerns, and so we need a different approach,” said Mayor Andrew Knack.

Knack said that while provincial regulations prevent cities from over-building infrastructure in advance, he believes the city can find some wiggle room in those rules.