Money will go toward extending route eastward to link up with Metis Trail and Stoney Trail
he federal government will contribute $50 million toward the expansion of Airport Trail, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday in Calgary.
The project will see a new segment of road built between 36th Street and 60th Street N.E., with an intersection at Metis Trail. It will also include the first stage of an interchange at 19th Street and Airport Trail, along with a new, southbound-to-westbound ramp at Stoney Trail and Airport Trail.
It’s the second phase of the Airport Trail expansion project, following the opening of the 620-metre, six-lane Airport Trail tunnel in 2014.
Construction is expected to begin this year and be complete in the spring of 2022, said provincial Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason.
Funding for the $145-million project is being split between the federal, provincial and municipal governments. Along with $50 million from the federal government’s National Trade Corridor Fund, the province has earmarked $27.7 million and the city and Calgary Airport Authority are providing the balance.
“Building the airport tunnel was never meant to be the end of this; the point of that tunnel was to create a new, east-west transportation link in this city … linking the ring road at Stoney Trail with Deerfoot Trail and beyond,” said Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
“With phase two, we realize that ultimate goal, of connecting Stoney [Trail] and Deerfoot in the north side of the city,” he added.
“It will help thousands of employees get to the airport more easily, reducing congestion, [and] making links for public transit much easier as well. This is about transit, it’s about movement of goods, it’s about creating new communities and new commercial and industrial areas in northeast Calgary.”
