Rob Murray: We have had, since the Spring, a lot of work being done around the intersection of Benchlands, Bow Valley Trail, and Railway Avenue. I think that is the busiest intersection in town, isn’t it?

Mayor John Borrowman: Not only the busiest intersection, but the most traveled road in Canmore as well. It’s a major thoroughfare.

RM: It’s still a bit of a labyrinth, especially as a pedestrian or a cyclist. I was trying to navigate that yesterday. I was like, “where am I supposed to be going?” What’s the status on this project, and when’s it all supposed to be done?

JB: It has been a very challenging project for Engineering and for the community. I’ve certainly experienced some of the frustration myself, and I understand why people are a little wound up, but on the other hand it’s critical work that’s being done. The primary purpose was to replace underground infrastructure, water and sewer lines and whatnot, that had been there for decades. One thing that added a great deal of challenge when the crews were digging was that the lines weren’t where they were showing on the maps. It required a lot of additional work to locate the underground infrastructure before they could then replace it. So it became a much more complex situation than had been anticipated, but the deep utility work was completed mid-July.

Tanya Foubert: Road construction is a season as well, and it just so happens to overlap with summer. The deep infrastructure work needs to be replaced. There are a lot of places in Canmore where that is the case and road upgrades are needed, and the only time we can do it is when it’s the most inconvenient. This just happens to be the busiest intersection and where we all seem to travel. I’ve altered the way that I’ve traveled through town to avoid it.

JB: Before I leave from wherever I am to get to wherever I’m going, I think about my route. I plan it out. Mostly I can avoid that intersection, but when I’ve been there, it’s been messy, but it hasn’t been impassable.

The surface work and the paving will be completed this fall. I understand out there in social media land, there’s rumors floating around that is this is going to go on for another year. The hard surfaces will be done by this fall. There may be some landscaping left to do for next spring, but the work that that’s interfering so much with people’s travel will be completed in the near future.

Filed under: Canmore, Mayor John Borrowman, Mountain Insider