After five years of construction, the 31 km Southwest Calgary Ring Road is complete and open to traffic.

The $1.42 billion project is one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Alberta’s history, connecting Highway 8 (near the Elbow Springs Golf Club) to Macleod Trail SE and making up about 20 per cent of the entire Calgary Ring Road.

“The Southwest Calgary Ring Road will help drivers in and around Calgary get where they need to go faster and safer, while also providing world-class transportation infrastructure necessary to support Alberta’s economic recovery,” said Premier Jason Kenney.

In October 2020, 12 kilometres of the Southwest Calgary Ring Road opened. A 10-kilometre section through the former Tsuut’ina Nation lands is called Tsuut’ina Trail. The project was delivered by KGL Constructors, a joint venture partnership between Kiewit, Graham and Ledcor.

“The opening of this section of our ring road is an important link for our city’s future growth and transport infrastructure. The Southwest now has another connection to provide access for residents and businesses to discover and interact with more communities across Calgary,” said Mayor of Calgary Naheed Nenshi.

The project consists of: 49 bridges; 31 kilometres of new six and eight-lane divided highway; 14 interchanges; three river crossings; two river realignments (Elbow River and Fish Creek); two bridge rehabilitations; one road flyover; one railway crossing (flyover); and one tunnel.

Construction involved:

• • 16 million cubic metres of excavated earth. If 1,650 NHL sized rinks full of dirt were stacked on top of each other, that’s how much earth was moved for this project.
  • 13 million kilograms of rebar.
  • One million metric tonnes of asphalt.