39 Street Twinning

Last Modified Apr 30, 08

Partially Funded by:

Project Profile:

With the significant industrial growth within Camrose, the City has seen a substantial amount of traffic and congestion along its busiest North / South connector, 39 Street. In particular, growth in the three pipe manufacturing and coating industries located in the Northeast portion of the City (OSM Tubular, Shaw Pipe, Garneau) has led to a large increase in pipe hauling into and out of each of these industries. The substantial lengths and weights of these trucks have led to a number of serious accidents and near misses over the past few years.

According to the City's Transportation Master Plan (TMP), 39 Street will eventually provide the East section of the City's future North Ring Road, which will provide an alternate route for heavy trucks, dangerous goods, and City and by-pass traffic along the North edge of the City. Prior to the completion of this future North arterial connection, 39 Street will need to be upgraded to provide the necessary capacity for the dramatic increase of passenger and heavy vehicle traffic that the North Ring Road will carry.

39 Street South

39 Street North

Following the results of a 2007 Stantec review of the entire length of 39 Street, which included numerous group and individual meetings with the neighbouring landowners, the City of Camrose decided to proceed with the twinning of 39 Street from 51 Avenue to 54 Avenue. This section of 39 Street will be expanded to a full 4-lane, divided arterial standard roadway, complete with an extra-wide grassed median separating the existing travel lanes from the future Northbound travel lanes. All major intersections and accesses will be designed and constructed to accommodate the vehicles which will use likely them: regularly sized trucks and semi-trailers will be accommodated at all business accesses, and 80-foot long cable-steered trucks will be accommodated at the 54 Avenue intersection and at all pipe-company entrances.

This project will drastically improve the safety of the roadway, as it will separate the Northbound and Southbound traffic by a wide grassed median. Safety will also be improved by providing separate left- and/or right-turning lanes, so as to allow the extra-long loads from 80-foot cable-steered pipe trucks to safely swing out over the median, rather than into the path of concurrent or on-coming traffic. Additionally, all rail crossings will be upgraded to provide crossing arms and flashing lights, to provide a safe intersection between vehicle traffic on 39 Street and the rail companies which will use the Canadian National (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP), and private Shaw Pipe rail lines.

Current Situation of Swinging Pipes for back of Pipe Trucks

In order to save future construction costs, this project will also be designed to accommodate the horizontal and vertical components of a future tie-in to the North Ring Road, which will likely be constructed within the next 10 to 20 years.

Interim 39 Street and Ultimate North Ring Road Tie-in Configuration

Finally, a 3-metre wide asphalt trail will be designed and constructed along the East side of the roadway. This trail, which was identified in the long-term trail improvements program in the City’s TMP, will accommodate a number of users. In the short term, this trail section will be predominantly used by commuting cyclists and walking pedestrians going to and from work at the nearby pipe plants. Following the completion of the North Ring Road, the use of this trail for recreational users will likely also increase, in addition to an increase in commuting use.

Following the completion of the new Northbound lanes, all traffic will be temporarily diverted onto the new traffic lanes to allow for the full depth reconstruction of key sections of the existing 39 Street travelling lanes. This reconstruction will repair the sections of roadway which are failing over the past few years of heavy truck traffic.

Engineering:

The design and site supervision of this project will be conducted by the City Engineering Department.

Contractor:

To be determined.

Budget and Funding:

The 2008 component of this capital project was estimated to be $5 million, with funding for the project broken down as follows:

Schedule:

• Preliminary design for this roadway was completed in 2007.
• Detailed design, including individual stakeholder meetings with nearby landowners, is expected to be complete by late-April 2008.
• This project will be publicly tendered in early-May, with awarding of contract to the successful bidder anticipated by early-June 2008.
• Construction should occur over the next 4 to 5 months, with the project being substantially complete by late-October 2008.
• There may be some carry-over work into 2009, depending on the project receiving the necessary approvals from the main rail companies, CN and CP. As well, some landscaping work will likely carry over into 2009.

Public Notice:

For more information contact the Engineering Department at 672-4428.

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