After a year and a half of all Whitemud Drive traffic flowing over one of the Rainbow Valley Bridges, soon vehicles will be going over the other upgraded bridge span.
Since February 2024, the westbound lanes of the Whitemud over the north bridge have been closed and two-way traffic has been redirected to the eastbound lanes on the south bridge.
During that time, the city has rehabilitated and widened the north bridge to four lanes plus shoulders and added a new pedestrian/cyclist bridge beside it.
Now, the westbound north bridge is nearly done, has been paved and line have been painted in anticipation of traffic flowing on it.
The City of Edmonton said a traffic pattern shift to the completed bridge to accommodate construction work on the eastbound Rainbow Valley Bridge is upcoming this month.
Construction crews have been working on getting the area ready, primarily overnight, for the last week or so.
The city said the latest schedule from the contractor says the final pieces will be put in place overnight this weekend and during the first half of next week. The exact date for when traffic will flip hasn’t yet been determined, but it should be soon.
Once that happens, there will be two lanes of traffic flowing in each direction on the new north/westbound bridge.
For the rest of 2025, the eastbound Whitemud Drive bridge will be widened and renewed, much like the other bridge was. The work is expected to be complete in 2026.
The reduced 60 km/h speed limit will remain.
The work is part of Stage 2 of the Terwillegar Drive expansion project. It started in 2021 and is expected to take five years to complete. The plan involves upgrading Terwillegar Drive to an expressway instead of a light-free freeway, which would have cost more.
The work at the Whitemud also includes adding an new 142 Street pedestrian bridge linking the Brookside and Bulyea Heights neighbourhoods, which was put in place earlier this year.
Stage 3 of the project includes further road widening, upgrades to the Terwillegar Drive and Anthony Henday Drive interchanges (work there is already underway) and adding dedicated transit lanes and a shared-use path.