New Calgary interchange to aid traffic flow in southeast

CALGARY, Alta. – The City of Calgary marked the opening of the Glenmore Trail-Ogden Road interchange July 18 with a truck from Orlicks Inc. breaking the ceremonial ribbon.

Gene Orlick, owner of Orlicks Inc., was on hand to celebrate the occasion, saying the six-lane thoroughfare was a safe, welcome addition to the city’s industrial region.

“We work on this infrastructure to help get goods to market more quickly,” Orlick said of industry’s collaboration with the Alberta and municipal governments. “This has been working very well.”

Orlick, who is the former chairman of the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA), hearkened back to last year’s opening of the 61st Ave. extension, which he said was a godsend to the surrounding community.

Orlick also pointed to the area off 84th Street S.E., where he said the majority of the local trucking industry calls home, and will all benefit from the Glenmore Trail project.

“You can tell with three lanes here that we’re going to have a really safe environment for cars and trucks to cohabitate out here on the road,” he said. “We’re very honored today to be the very first truck over the road.”

The grand opening of the Glenmore-Ogden interchange is the first of four interchanges expected to open this summer in Calgary.

With over 70,000 Calgarians employed in transportation logistics in the city, the new road, which includes a bridge over Ogden Road that will help alleviate bottleneck issues in the area, is a welcome one for businesses in Calgary’s southeast.

The roadway stretches between Ogden Road and Barlow Trail. In addition to the bridge over Ogden Road, the project includes future Greenline LRT tracks and improvements to the intersection at Glenmore and Barlow Trail.

The city pointed to better connectivity for Calgarians, removal of ground-level railway crossings, free-flow traffic on Glenmore with no traffic lights, and benefits to the trucking industry as advantages of the new interchange.

The project came with a $90 million price tag, with $66 million being provided by the provincial government.

MLA Robyn Luff was also present during the ceremony, saying her NDP government plans to spend $7 billion on infrastructure projects in Alberta.

The Glenmore-Ogden interchange is one of those initiatives, and Luff said she knows how important the new road is for those who live and work in the region.

“I know that this will make a huge difference in the lives of people in this area,” Luff said, highlighting that last week, her government reached an agreement with stakeholders on the continued development of Calgary’s ring road in the southern region, which will be named Tsuut’ina Trail in the southwest.

The Glenmore-Ogden interchange grand opening ceremony was held in Calgary July 18.

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A university graduate with a degree in English, I have worked in the media and trucking industries as a writer, editor, and now as western bureau chief of Today's Trucking and TruckNews.com. I have several years of management experience in journalism, as well as hospitality, but am first and foremost a writer, both professionally and in my personal life, having completed two fiction novels.
derek@newcom.ca
@DerekClouthier


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  • It should be free flowing across Calgary . When is Barlow overpass going to be done? Should have been done same time . Then 52nd st. That would help traffic flow and take people off deerfoot .