The long-awaited day for residents in Sage Hill, Evanston, Livingston, Ambleton, and Carrington has arrived, as the 144 Avenue NW connector was opened to the public on Sept. 27.

The completion of the 1.2 kilometres of arterial road between 24 Street NW and Symons Valley Road NW now means that for north Calgarians, there is an east-west connector road that stretches from the city’s boundaries in the west, to near Deerfoot in the east.

The $61.2 million project was funded by the City of Calgary, Government of Alberta, and Government of Canada through the Community Building Fund and the Municipal Sustainability Initiative.

Ryan Vanderputten, Director of Business and Engineering Services for the City of Calgary, said that residents couldn’t be more excited about the road opening—with more than 250 from surrounding areas joining the city for the official road opening.

“For the communities, this will give them the opportunity to get to their destinations quicker, give them more opportunities and more choices to travel and really be more connected to the businesses and recreational opportunities of the city,” he said.

“The City of Calgary, has been working on this roadway for three or four years. As you can tell, there’s a lot of work. We’re working within an environmentally sensitive area. So, we’re just really working to protect the environment, to protect the West Nose Creek and then really safely provide construction opportunities.”

He said that as part of the road opening, the arterial connection also fits with the city’s 5A strategy (always available for all ages and abilities) of providing pedestrian and cycling access, through the addition of a path that runs parallel to the roadway.

“We want to provide safe opportunities for alternative modes of travel, for walking, cycling and wheeling. So we’ve got a generous pathway, multi-use pathway, on the south side of the bridge here connecting into the regional pathway network in the West Nose Creek Valley,” he said.

City council and local residents celebrate opening

The opening of the road by the city was congratulated by Ward 2 Councillor Jennifer Wyness, who said that the population growth in her ward was been so fast that there needed to be a connection for those residents.

“We have multi generational families, one generation over there and another generation the other side, and that’s why I continue to talk about Ward 2 and as a multi generational community,” she said.

“The city, I think, has lost sight of who has moved into our city and what their daily needs are, and this is wonderful getting everyone out to see how and who lives in Calgary, and what their needs are and why we need to prioritize spending In the suburbs and throughout the entire city.”

She said that feedback is being solicited right now, to anticipate what Calgarians need for development in the north end of the city, and to address weaknesses in the east-west connections in Calgary Transit.

The roadway was also reflected upon by rancher Harold Evans, who used to co-own a ranch with his brother Don Evans, that the road now sits on.

“It look looks great. We always said ‘you know, someday they’ll put a road to there, and by God we live long enough to see it so,” he said.

Harold said that he and Don decided to visit the opening of the road to come see for themselves that change.

“We lived here for 30 years. I guessed we should come back – and longer than that, our family lived here since 1945.”

Road opens up new opportunities for transit connections not focused on downtown

The federal government’s investment into the road was an essential one, said Calgary Skyview MP George Chahal, who spoke on behalf of Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities at the opening.

The Government of Canada’s portion of the investment was $3.1 million.

“I think it’s really important federal dollars going to create this roadway through a sensitive area, the Nose Creek ravine that runs through here, which is really important for Calgarians,” said Chahal.

He said that the addition of the bike lane was also an important part of the project and that it was good to see many of the residents biking to the official opening.

Transit would continue to be an important aspect of the construction work happening in the area in terms of a federal priority, Chahal said.

The City of Calgary launched a functional planning study for a 144 Avenue North Bus Rapid Transit corridor, and transit terminal at Symons Valley, in the summer of 2024. The potential route would extend from Crowchild Trail NW in the west, to 11 Street NE in the east.

“We have a $3 billion transit plan that we brought forward to fund municipalities throughout Canada, and I think the City of Calgary has a great opportunity to reap lot more federal dollars to projects here in the City of Calgary when it comes to public transit. We need to build more public transit,” said Chahal.

Calgary Foothills MLA Court Ellingson said that the investment by the province into the project would enable critically needed transit infrastructure into a growing north Calgary.

“Some of the fastest-growing communities in the entire country are right here. It’s going to help people get to school, get to work. But you know what? It’s also going to help them just connect with one another. Extended families live on either side of this bridge, and we’ve just made it so much easier, easier for them to get together and spend more time with one another,” Ellingson said.

He said, speaking in his role as Shadow Minister of Finance, that the province needs to be making investments into road infrastructure, but also into transit and alternative modes of transportation.

“All of that is critical infrastructure. and we should be following the leads of municipalities who know their local residents the best,” Ellingson said.