Work will begin on Stephen Avenue’s rehabilitation next week after the City of Calgary met with business owners to hammer out a new plan.
The City of Calgary provided an update on the construction Wednesday afternoon, a week after they decided to delay the expected July 14 start date.
They will begin work on the Stephen Avenue Rehabilitation Project on Monday, July 21, and will start with the east half of the 100 block of 1 Street SE. Construction will expand to the west part of the block on Sept. 2. The City said this allows business in the area to take advantage of the bulk of this year’s patio season on the popular strip.
“Calgary’s economy is growing, and as we invest in the future of our downtown, we remain committed to minimizing disruption to local businesses,” said Michael Thompson, General Manager of Infrastructure Services, in a prepared media release.
“This updated construction plan reflects that balance by supporting summer patio operations while keeping the revitalization project on track.”
With the construction adjustments, the City said they expect work on the block to largely be done by June 2026. Work along Centre Street will continue through to the end of 2026, though there will be a break in July and August to provide time for businesses to operate in that time.
The project is upgrading underground infrastructure, which, in some cases, is more than 100 years old. The City said that water mains, electrical conduits and stormwater systems will be replaced with modern utilities.
Business owners in the area had lobbied the city to halt construction so they could take advantage of the post-Stampede summer rush along Stephen Avenue. They had wanted the City to start construction on the east side to make this happen.
Stephen Deere, owner of Modern Steak along Stephen Avenue, had been advocating for a better compromise for area businesses.
“I feel the city and local businesses came to the best compromise possible to be able to make this work for everyone and I’m happy with the outcome at this point,” he said via text message to LWC.
“I am looking forward to working collaboratively with the city to make the project happen.”
Need to do better on engagement
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek had convened business owners last week with the hope of hammering out a plan that worked for both sides.
“I can tell you, in that meeting, it was a very meaningful conversation, and people were able to express, ‘this is why we need to do these infrastructure upgrades,’ and ‘this is the impact that your work will have on my business,'” she told reporters.
“With both sides being able to exchange their needs and their concerns, we were able to come back with a better solution.”
Still, the fact that Stephen Avenue business owners had to threaten legal action, forcing the meeting, which ultimately led to a compromise, underscores the need for better engagement on infrastructure projects, the mayor said.
“I think any time that there’s multiple stakeholders who have needs in a given project, we’ve got to get much stronger at engaging early and often,” Mayor Gondek said.
“Those conversations at early points in planning a project are important, but what becomes equally important is carrying on those conversations to the point where we’re going to start executing. Because you can have a conversation in January, and people aren’t going to remember that you’re doing something in September.”
Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong said, ideally, they will be a lot better at the engagement on projects going forward.
“Taking a portfolio, program, project management approach, where you’re taking a look at a multitude of projects all the same time, finding coincidental location changes, the coincidental closures, coincidental coordination of resources, materials, ideally, having all the stars aligned the same time and the impact to it – minimal time frame and impact to business – is the ideal way to go.”
