Edmonton Minute: LRT Cracks, Project Delays, and a Catalytic Converter Challenge

Edmonton Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Edmonton politics

This Week In Edmonton:

• On Wednesday, there will be an Executive Committee meeting at 9:30 am. The Committee will discuss the implications of the Edmonton Metropolitan Transit Service Commission’s phase one service plan, as well as grant awards for the Affordable Housing Investment Program, among other items.
  
  
• On Friday, there will be a Community and Public Services Committee meeting at 9:30 am. On the agenda are a couple of pieces of unfinished business including a review of the Public Spaces Bylaw and a naming and sponsorship agreement between Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities and the City of Edmonton to rename the Clareview Community Recreation Centre the Jumpstart Community Recreation Centre. Also on the agenda is a report about the possibility of providing drug checking programs and options to implement them.
  
  
• The Edmonton Mountain Bike Festival kicks off this weekend at Queen Elizabeth Park. Events include guided trail rides, live music, craft beer, and food trucks. Tickets are available online. The event is family friendly and there are plenty of kids activities too!

Last Week In Edmonton:

• Even more cracks were discovered in the supports of the new Valley Line Southeast LRT, bringing the total number of concrete piers with cracks up to 21 of 45 total piers. The original date for the line to be in service was December 2020, putting the $1.8 billion public-private partnership between TransEd and the City of Edmonton two years behind schedule. TransEd are “narrowing down various design solutions”, though there is no timeline for completion.
  
  
• Speaking of delays, 20% of the City of Edmonton’s major projects are behind schedule. Of particular note is the automated parking enforcement system which is now "560% delayed". [Editor: We assume this means it has taken 5.6x as long as expected to complete, but it's a little unclear.] LED streetlight conversion and the transit smart fare system are also delayed.
  
  
• The Edmonton Police Service, in conjunction with Millennium Insurance Corporation and the Edmonton Police Foundation, is offering $50,000 to someone with the best idea for dealing with catalytic converter thefts. Edmonton has been seeing increasing thefts of catalytic converters in recent years as they take mere minutes to steal and contain valuable metals like platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Do you think they'd give us the money if we suggested not cutting police funding as our idea?

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