Eighth Street underpass opens to pedestrians, but work will continue until January

Long a dingy, grubby and dark passageway between the Beltline and downtown, the new and improved Eighth Street underpass opened to pedestrians on Tuesday.

"This underpass is particularly interesting because it's got 8,000 to 9,000 people a day walking through it and it's really important for us to make that experience a pleasant and safe experience for everyone who comes through here," said Ben Barrington, program manager for centre city implementation in the city's urban strategy department.

The underpass, which Barrington said was celebrating a soft opening, still needs work on the public art, some of the lighting and other finishing touches. It's expected work will be complete by January.

Part of larger undertaking

Costing approximately $8.8 million, the project is part of a larger effort to refurbish Calgary's old railway underpasses, including passages at Fourth Street, Fifth Street and First Street.

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Barrington said the underpass required significant repairs beyond the facelift, with crumbling concrete posing a safety risk.

"I'd say a third of that was just to fix and repair the structure before we even did anything," he said of the price tag.

One of the major intents of the refurbishment is to encourage walking.

"By making this walkway feel wider and easier to walk on, it will encourage people to walk instead of getting in their cars and driving downtown," said Barrington.

Public art

The Eighth Street underpass features improved lighting, design, safety features including CCTV and a ribbon of LED lights with words scrolling along itscurved frame.That ticker is the public art component of the project.

"The public art is reminiscent of the turn-of-the-century advertising, generally, where it tells stories about things that happened when Calgary was young. That's how it ties into the CPR which built this city," said Barrington.

He said the art project isn't finished yet.

"When it's fully functional there'll be an app that people can have and you could put in a word and it would go through the database and find a little story with that word in it," he said.

"What we're trying to do is lighting that isn't just lighting, that it's other things as well."

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