Scona Road is a major urban arterial roadway which leads to one of six river crossings into Edmonton’s downtown core. In 2011, the roadway underwent a full reconstruction as well as the addition of a new lane to address the existing congestion levels and safety issues which occurred as a result of vehicles attempting a merge onto Scona Road from a major arterial. A new lane was required to provide a free-flow movement for vehicles leaving the downtown. This paper discusses the City of Edmonton’s experience with the design and construction to accommodate the new alignment. A major challenge the design encountered was fully accommodating all existing adjacent property users. The west side of the roadway is adjacent to Edmonton’s environmentally sensitive river valley. A detailed review was undertaken in an effort to best balance out the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, river valley users, commuters and the adjacent community. The conflicting requirements of the numerous stakeholders could not all be met within the restrictive right of way. The intent of the report is to provide readers with an insight to an urban widening project and discuss not only the challenges but possible solutions to a topic which numerous Canadian municipalities face: What are the options and implications for widening a roadway in a fully developed and environmentally sensitive area?
