Business owners along the Yellowhead Trail face a tough decision in the next year — stay or pick up and move.
The city is converting 15 kilometres of the Yellowhead into a freeway and the $1 billion project includes removing several intersections.
The one at 89th street is slated to be closed permanently. That will limit access to at least a dozen businesses along a service road that runs parallel to the Yellowhead.
For businesses that choose to stay, it will force customers and employees to use 97th interchange or 82nd Street — both nearly a kilometre away — to get to the premises.
The city says the 89th Street intersection will close permanently to make room for the freeway.
Graham Dick is thinking about moving his autobody shop, Cougar Paint and Collision Inc., which he started 36 years ago.
“It’s a busy road and everybody sees your shop and everything but if they can’t get in there, there’s not much sense being on a busy road.”
Dick has tried to communicate the impact the intersection closure will have on surrounding businesses, but he doesn’t think the city will budge.
“It’s like a battle,” he said. “They don’t really understand that this is a lot of people’s livelihood here, so it’s a serious deal for me and the rest of my family who all work here.”
Graham Dick’s business Cougar Paint and Collision has been on the service road parallel to the Yellowhead since he opened it in 1983. (Sam Martin/CBC)
Down the road, the Flaman Fitness Warehouse is already trying to clear out its merchandise.
Peter Steblyk, business development manager, said closing the 89th Street intersection will make it complicated for customers to get to the warehouse.
“In order to sell the product, people have to find us,” he told CBC News. “This change is going to be significant for us. It basically forces our hand.”
Steblyk said after 15 years in the current location, business has been booming with people able to pop in and out with direct access from the Yellowhead.
“People can walk into this showroom and perhaps jump on 12 different treadmills to find out which one suits them best, which price range suits them best,” he said.
With indoor and outdoor fitness equipment, playgrounds, home health care, and trailers for rent and for sale, Steblyk said the company thinks it will take two years to move.
Behind Cougar Paint and Collision on 126th Avenue is another slew of businesses, most noticeable being Sokil, a 67-year-old transportation company that began in Edmonton.
Kim Sokil, co-owner and IT director, is the second generation to work for the family-run company, which has 200 trucks and 500 trailers and ships all over Western Canada.
Once the 89th Street intersection closes, trucks will be forced to use the service road instead of turning directly onto the Yellowhead.
As it stands, trucks can’t navigate the current 90-degree turn from 89th Street onto the service road.
“There’s no way our trucks could get in and out, at all.”
Sokil co-owner Kim Sokil says his company’s trucks are too big to turn onto the service road at 89th Street, which is the alternative proposed by the city. (Sam Martin/CBC)
Kris Lima, director of the city’s Yellowhead Trail portfolio, said one of the first changes they will make is widening the corner at 89th Street and the service road so that trucks can get around safely.
“We’re hoping that our design and our changes and our improvements will address those concerns.”
Sokil said they may be forced to move, which could mean millions of dollars to find the land, build the warehouses and move the equipment.
‘Deaf ears’
Sokil asked to be relocated and the city said no.
“We’ve asked them to come out and do test drives, we’ve asked them all sorts of things and we just don’t get much response,” Sokil said.
Dick agreed there’s been little response from the city.
The corner of 89th Street and the service road is being widened to try to accommodate large trucks from neighbouring businesses. (Sam Martin/CBC)
“When you try to give them different suggestions or ideas or different ways of doing it, it doesn’t really seem to be feasible in their plan,” Dick said.
“Kind of falls on deaf ears.”
Lima confirmed the plan to close 89th Street is a done deal.
“The program is really to convert Yellowhead Trail to a freeway, which is really free-flowing with no traffic signals.”
Dick believes the businesses near the 89th Street intersection are getting a bad deal compared to other crossroads.
If the 89th intersection has to go, Dick said he’d would like to see a ‘right-in, right-out’ merging lane onto the Yellowhead.
“All’s I really want is it just to be equal for everybody up and down the road,” he said. “So if at 62nd street, they get a right-in and a right-out, why can’t we have the same thing at 89th Street?”
Lima said there’s not enough room on the Yellowhead between the 82nd and 97th Street interchanges to have a merging lane at 89th.
“From a safety perspective, it’s just not doable.”
Steblyk said customers would have to use 97th to get to Flaman.
Peter Steblyk, business development manager with Flaman, said the company is looking for a new location for its fitness and outdoor equipment warehouse.
“You can actually access it from 82nd Street but only those who work here know how to wiggle through that route to get to this particular location,” he said.
“One of our neighbouring businesses here mentioned that if you have to hand a business card, and on the back of it you need a map in order to find you, it’s pretty significant.”
Lima admitted bigger changes are coming. The project includes eliminating the interchanges at 121st Street and 127th Street but that portion is still in the design phase.
Work on the upgrades starts next spring
The city said it’s launching an outreach program this fall to get from the public.