End in sight for Township Road 240 traffic disruption

The construction work that has been leading to nightmarish disruptions to homes and business located along Township Road 240 this summer is nearing the end.
“We’re hoping to get asphalt and concrete down before the end of the fall here,” said Project Coordinator Carrie Stettner.
Paving is weather dependent but will take about two more weeks to complete.
Stettner did say that regardless of the weather, the worst of the construction disruptions to local traffic is finished.
“The worst is definitely over,” she said.
Although the project was going to cause inevitable disruptions, the worst culprit wasn’t actually the construction but rather rain events that impacted the work.
“The weather made the access a lot more difficult,” she said.
“I…want to emphasize that we appreciate everybody’s patience during construction,” said Stettner.
Township Road 240 has been in need of an upgrade for some time, regular commuters can attest to the washboard feel of driving down the road prior to the start of construction.
“This is a…project that will greatly improve the access for the southern part of Chestermere,” she said.
The road is also one of the last remaining thoroughfares in Chestermere that hasn’t been upgraded from a gravel road.
The improvements have been deemed by the city to be an important support for the future growth of the southern part of the city.
Preparation for the multi-year upgrade project started in 2015 with the design and regulatory approvals that precede the actual construction work.
Roadwork started in January of 2017 on the first bridge of the project and work to prepare the road to be paved has run through the summer.
Unfortunately for all involved the original gravel road was not engineered or designed to be paved.
“We had to rebuild the entire road structure so there was a lot of work done to the road,” said Stettner.
This extra work was done to ensure the road would last for its entire 20-year life span.
Because of this extra work, there was more disruption to the home and business access along Township Road 240 than a simple paving project.
“We’ve been working with the residents’ one-on-one throughout construction to make sure they’re aware of where their access will be,” said Stettner.
In addition to the good news that the worst disruptions are over, Stettner said that the project is also on schedule and on budget.
“And in the end when it’s completed, this will be a paved two-lane collector road,” she said.
Updates on the project are posted to the city of Chestermere website at http://chestermere.ca/698/Township-Road-240-Upgrade.