Hosting a professional bike race comes with a whole host of benefits, but along with those benefits come a few inconveniences. One of those is road closures.
For three days, beginning Sept. 3, business owners, residents and visitors will find themselves detouring around Jasper’s downtown core, while numerous roads are closed to allow safe travel for the cyclists competing in the Tour of Alberta, as well as for visitors partaking in the festivities on the information centre lawn.
Concrete times haven’t yet been released for the closures, but the municipality has released a guide for downtown businesses to let them know where the closures will take place and on which days.
Thursday
Blockades will first appear on Thursday, Sept. 3, for the set up of the festival grounds on the information centre lawn, with the westbound lanes of Connaught Drive being closed, leaving the eastbound lanes for single lane two-way traffic.
Miette Avenue between Connaught Drive and Patricia Street will also be closed, as will the Jasper the Bear parking lot.
Friday
On Friday, Sept. 4, closures will expand to include Patricia Street between Hazel Avenue and Pyramid Lake Road. Alleys will remain open for local traffic and to accommodate deliveries.
Elm Avenue and Fir Avenue will also be closed adjacent to Patricia Street, as will the parking lots at the Old Fire Hall, the Connaught Drive washrooms and the 400-block of Connaught.
Saturday
The closures will once more expand on Saturday, Sept. 5 so cyclists can complete two parade laps around the downtown core. The closure will come into effect at 10:30 a.m.
The laps will start on Connaught Drive and will take the riders clockwise through the central business district before they head out of town using Connaught Drive, heading west.
While the riders are in town, Connaught Drive will be closed in both directions from Hazel Avenue to Pyramid Lake Road and both Hazel and Pyramid Lake Road will be closed between Patricia Street and Connaught Drive.
Sleepy Hollow Road and Highway 93A will also be closed.
After the riders have left town, streets will reopen to traffic shortly after, with the exception of the westbound lanes of Connaught Drive and Miette Avenue from Connaught Drive to Patricia Street.
Leave your car at home
To keep traffic congestion to a minimum and leave available parking spaces for visitors, the municipality is asking Jasperites to park their cars at home for the weekend.
“If you don’t absolutely have to take your car downtown, don’t,” said Christine Nadon, manager of communications for the municipality. “Walk or bike.”
She also asks that residents park their cars on their leaseholds, leaving street parking open for the visiting public.
Nadon acknowledged that there will be disruptions to everyday life while the Tour of Alberta is in town, but she said the municipality is working closely with Parks Canada and Tourism Jasper to ensure locals and visitors are aware of the road closures and the available detours to minimize the inconvenience.
Maps will be handed out at the gates when visitors enter the park on the weekend of the event and hotels have been provided with a digital map to share with their guests prior to their visit.
Those maps can also be found on the municipality’s website and will be published in the Fitzhugh in the weeks to come.
Public parking
With the road closures also comes a loss of parking spaces downtown. Those will be used by the Tour of Alberta entourage.
To accommodate visitors, parking lots will be set up on the high school exchange lands, on Pyramid Lake Road, as well as on the old Esso leasehold on Connaught Drive and at the Parks Canada compound.
The local organizing committee is working together with businesses to ensure there are shuttles for people parking at the former Esso station and at the Parks compound.
The Tour of Alberta is a professional bike race that attracts the same cyclists that compete in the Tour de France. The third annual event will be in Jasper Sept. 4 and 5, with two mountaintop finishes, one at Miette Hot Springs and another at Marmot Basin.
During the race, there will be festivals taking place at the finishes, as well as on the information centre lawn. To learn more about the tour and what Jasper’s doing while it’s here, visit www.jasper.travel/tourofalberta. To volunteer for the event, fill out the application form at www.tourofalberta.com.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
