Downtown bus detours revised in effort to reduce traffic congestion
One week into a planned six-week total closure of 100th Street downtown, the City of Edmonton has announced new transit detours designed to ease traffic congestion.
Starting June 10, 22 bus routes were detoured from 100th Street to 101st Street to allow for construction of Valley Line LRT tracks at 100th Street and 102nd Avenue. The intersection is closed until late July.
Moving all 22 routes onto 101st Street created congestion problems, city spokesperson Tarra Kongsrude said Friday.
Starting Monday, the city is modifying detours for nine routes travelling north on 100th Street. Those buses will turn east onto Jasper Avenue until 97th Street, where they will turn north until 104th Avenue.
The affected routes are 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 68, 69, 72 and 90.
Bus routes 7, 8, 15, 52, 70, 81, 82, 85, 87, 112, 512, 856 and 965 will continue with the original detour plan, using 101st Street between Jasper Avenue and 104th Avenue.
"We heard from customers and traffic and from our operators that it was taking a very long time to get out of the downtown core," Kongsrude said. "So we had to sit down and re-look at our options."
"Normally when we put in a detour it takes three or four days and the traffic adjusts to that, but we were finding that it wasn't adjusting so we went to our second option."
'Hotel California'
Patti Nicholl works on Jasper and 97th Street, said with the LRT, the library and the Churchill Square, the city is overloading the construction projects all in one season.
"It's crazy and I also think a lot of the construction isn't well marked," she said. "Once you're in it you cannot get out, it's like the Hotel California."
She said the new detour may add to the confusion.
"That's going to be really tough for a lot of people and it's even difficult to walk up there so I don't know how people that have to get to work on time are going to get there."
Roni Kohut commutes from St. Albert and has been getting off near Rogers Place and walking to her office, which takes about seven minutes longer.
"They even announce it on the bus, 'if you want to get off and walk it's going to be faster, cause it comes around the corner it's going to be in a parking lot,' " she said. "So everyone gets off."
Updated orange and white detour notices will be installed on posts next to closed bus stops and new temporary stops in advance of the detours. ETS staff will be at bus stops on 100th Street and 97th Street next week to help passengers find their new temporary stops.
The detours are expected to last until July 20, when construction of the LRT tracks at 100th Street and 102nd Avenue is complete.
More information about the downtown bus detours is available here.
