Alberco wins $55M contract to build new bridge over North Saskatchewan River northeast of Edmonton

A map of the Hwy. 15 twinning project. The second phase of work includes construction of a new bridge over the North Saskatchewan River. PHOTO: Government of Alberta

FORT SASKATCHEWAN, Alta.—The Alberta Ministry of Transportation has awarded a $55 million construction contract for the second phase of a highway twinning project northeast of Edmonton.

Alberco Construction Ltd. will be responsible for building a new bridge over the North Saskatchewan River in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., as well as twinning portions of Highway 15 on each side of the new bridge.

Currently, just a single two-lane bridge crosses the river. The bottleneck has led to significant congestion, with traffic in and out of the city increasing by about 50 per cent over the past decade.

“The City of Fort Saskatchewan has been waiting for this project for many years,” Gale Katchur, the city’s mayor, said in a release. “Our residents know all too well about congestion, in particular over the bridge, and they’re looking forward to completion of this twinning project to make their daily commute easier and safer.”

Alberco will need to keep the existing bridge, which was built in the 1950s, in service as it erects the two-lane new span. The old bridge will stay in service once the new bridge is finished, but will carry only westbound traffic over the river. The new bridge will serve eastbound traffic, as well as pedestrians.

The bridge work — Part B of the wider Hwy. 15 project — is scheduled to take about three years. Crews are already on-site.

Meanwhile, Wells Construction, a unit of Lafarge Canada Inc., started work earlier this summer on Part A of the project, which includes twinning about three kilometres of Hwy. 15 west of Fort Saskatchewan on the north side of the North Saskatchewan River

The cost of the entire highway project is expected to cost between $100 million and $120 million.