4th Street Underpass Now Open

It's official - life is about to get a whole lot easier (and lovelier) for thousands of Calgarians. The sun shone down like a bright, happy welcome mat at the 4th Street SE underpass grand opening today in our Centre City.

The underpass has been a while in the works and it means East Village and Victoria Park will now be linked, generating new commuter and pedestrian flow, shortening travel times, and generally just contributing to a vibrant atmosphere in our city.

The $70 million dollar project sits right across from the future home of the National Music Centre and down the street from Stampede Park. The underpass is bright, inviting and functional beyond belief. It certainly sets the bar for any future underpass redevelopment in Calgary. We're very proud of Calgary Municipal Land Corporation and the many teams at The City for making this happen!

One of those teams is the Urban Design group. During the early stages of this project, the Urban Design team brainstormed with architect, Bill Marshall of Marshall Tittemore Architects, and came up with an inspiring collection of public realm ideas - the basis of which you'll see reflected in the underpass today! (This team is also behind the Downtown Underpass Urban Design Guidelines, feel free to check them out.)

Here are a few photos from the opening event today:

4th-St-SE-underpass-opening_Panorama01

And here's what some stakeholders are saying about the new underpass: "Both Beltline and East Village benefit from the new 4th Street SE underpass. So do all Calgarians. Now everywhere in east downtown connects to the rest of Centre City as well as to communities north and east," says Beltline Communities President Rob Taylor. "On top of it all, the underpass is wide and functional and beautifully designed. CMLC did a great job."

And for more information about the overpass, click here. You can also see a few videos (below) about the underpass, courtesy of evexperience.com and Calgary City Newsroom