With the final piece of the funding puzzle now in place, the City of Edmonton’s NAIT LRT route is right on track for an April 2014 completion.

The Alberta government recently announced that $497 million from its Green Transit Incentives Program (GreenTRIP) will support the project. The NAIT LRT expansion is the first project to be funded under the GreenTRIP strategy.

Aecom Technology Corp. won the US$32.5-million contract to provide project management and engineering services during construction of the extension. Previously, the multinational technical and management support services firm completed the detailed design phase for the project.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that plans to bring the LRT to NAIT have been confirmed,” says Dr. Glenn Feltham, NAIT president and CEO. “This project supports our sustainability vision and will be an enormous benefit to our staff and students.”

Work is already under way to expand the LRT from Churchill Station to NAIT with stops at Grant MacEwan University and Kingsway Mall. The new 3.3-km leg of the LRT is the first in a northward expansion hoped to reach St. Albert in coming years. The total cost of this project is $745 million. There will be no cost to NAIT for the LRT.

The NAIT LRT station will be located at street level on the south corner of our Main Campus alongside the athletics facilities. The City estimates more than 13,000 additional users will use the NAIT LRT on a daily basis. The ride from downtown will take approximately nine minutes.

Take a look at the City of Edmonton’s narrated video (above) of the future LRT route from downtown to NAIT.