Airport tunnel given permission to land
Posted Feb 8, 2011 7:46 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After hours of debate, Calgary city council approved the expenditure of almost $300-million to build the controversial airport tunnel project.
While the development has been approved, details on how it will be paid for have not yet been finalized.
Alderman Druh Farrell got her council colleagues to agree to the idea of looking at charging area businesses a levy if they will benefit from the various transportation improvements.
The airport tunnel could also be turned into a toll road, with estimated proceeds of more than $5-million a year and proceeds being used to help cover the costs of extending the LRT to YYC.
Administration has also been charged with trying to see if any additional funding might be available from the airport authority, as well as the provincial and federal governments.
Barlow Trial north of 48th Avenue N.E. will be closed to traffic in early April to accommodate the construction of a new runway at the airport.
If all goes according to plan, the new airport tunnel will be open to traffic in 2014.
Grant Galpin with the Airport Trial Access Committee tells 660News the decision was a major victory for his group, which has been lobbying long and hard for the tunnel for more than two years.
