Province eager to offload Deerfoot Trail, but city is waiting for ring road

The city is about one-third of the way through a study into possible improvements toDeerfoot Trail as it prepares to take control of the roadway from the province.

No date has been set for the transfer of control, but the city's manager of transportation, Mac Logan, said the province is eager to offload it, and asked the city as recently as last week to take control of the road.

"That wasn't the deal," he said."Imean, the expectation was that the ring road would be complete, and then we would talk about what the turn back looks like. That being said, we're getting ready for that possibility."

The city says the infrastructure along Deerfoot, mostly built between 1971 and 1982, is not meeting the needs of a population that has doubled since it was built.

Average daily traffic on the road, according to the city, "ranges from 83,000 vehicles per day at the south end to 170,000 vehicles per day north of Memorial Drive."

Logan said he expects the Deerfoot study will be completed in 2018.

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