Wedgewood Ravine
By Dominic Lloyd
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
On June 8 2004, we visited Wedgewood Ravine and the newly-constructed bridge over Wedgewood Ravine. (We visited Wedgewood Ravine a second time on July 6 2004.) The bridge is part of Anthony Henday Drive, which will connect Highway 16 to Highway 2. To get to Wedgewood Ravine, you can take the 178 Street exit south from Whitemud Freeway. After you cross Callingwood Road, 178 Street becomes Lessard Road. Follow it to 184 Street. Turn left onto 184 Street and go south for a short distance until where 184 Street is blocked to motor vehicle traffic. Then you can walk down the hill into the ravine.
At the bottom of the hill, the road crosses the creek, and you can turn left onto a path that goes north-east to the North Saskatchewan River. But we continued along 184 Street and climbed out of the ravine where we met Kip from Alberta Transportation. He supplied us with hardhats and safety vests, and led us on a tour of the new highway bridge over Wedgewood Ravine.
184 Street
Anthony Henday Map
On the map, the partially-constructed Anthony Henday Drive is shown in yellow. It is being built by Alberta Transportation even though it is within the City of Edmonton. Planning for this highway began fifty years ago with land acquisition. Wedgewood Ravine is just above Kip's thumb. The North Saskatchewan River crossing is down a little, and to the right.
Ramblers in Hardhats
Bridge
The new bridge has a path under it for people hiking the Wedgewood Ravine, and an area lower down for animals to move along the ravine. Disturbed areas around the bridge and all along the highway are being "naturalized" by planting native grasses and trees.
Cocomat
Piers
Grass is planted, and then cocomat (coconut matting) is spread on top to hold the seed in place. The coconut fibre and the plastic netting are both biodegradable. Gabions are also used.
The bridge piers are wide enough so that the bridge can be widened when necessary by adding another lane on each side. Eventually there will be four lanes in each direction.