The frustration experienced by thousands of residents of a southeast Edmonton neighbourhood reached a boiling point over the weekend, after a new four-way stop was installed in the Maple Crest neighbourhood.

The goal was increased safety on the main road in and out of the neighbourhood — but it led to big backups and long waits.

Global News was at the intersection — Maple Road and 12th Street — on Monday around noon. It wasn’t even rush hour and yet, traffic ground to a halt near the new stop signs.

The intersection was converted from a two-way stop to a four-way stop on Friday.

“The rationale for it being installed was so that those in the community, north and south of Maple Road would be able to have access, safe access onto Maple Road,” said ward Sspomitapi Councillor Jo-Anne Wright.

But long after the signs were installed, community members started seeing problems with the plan.

“From Whitemud (Drive) to 17th Street, everything was blocked. It took us 40 minutes to just get into our community,” said Farhana Mustafa, a Maple Crest resident.

2:02
Residents of Maple Crest concerned over lack of ways to get into neighbourhood

Maple Road had already been a longstanding source of contention for many drivers in the area.

The neighbourhood sits on a pie-shaped sliver of land in southeast Edmonton, flanked by Whitemud Drive to the north and Anthony Henday Drive to the east and south.

The nearest major road is 17 Street to the west, but getting to on Maple Road it requires crossing CN tracks.

The newer neighbourhood contains a dense mix of apartments and condo buildings, townhouses, duplexes and single-family homes.

City census data from 2019 said 2,500 people lived in Maple Crest and the area has only grown in the years since.

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Train delays are a common headache for residents and the added four-way intersection — just a few hundred metres from the train tracks — pushed some residents over the edge.

Wright says she received more than 200 emails over the weekend and others reached out to 311.

Some residents first saw it posted to social media, like Kimberle Peterson.

“At first, I just kind of blew it off, until I actually got out there driving, and yeah, just utter frustration. It shouldn’t have to take that long to get to your house,” Peterson said.

“Like a Sunday afternoon, you wouldn’t expect it to be busy, but the traffic was backed up to 17th (Street).”

While some felt the effects during rush hour, others say it backed up traffic at random times of the day.

“It’s very frustrating. Our community, our neighbourhood, everyone is, it’s going to take forever to get into the community,” said Mustafa.

The City of Edmonton heard the complaints. On Monday afternoon, workers took down the stop signs, trying to get traffic back to normal.

“Taking it from a four-way stop back to a two-way stop, then they’ll be doing a reassessment to see what else might work better for the residents,” said Wright.

There’s another route in and out of Maple Crest — Railway Street, a dirt road south of the developed area, which gives access to a flyover bridge that goes east into Strathcona County and also connects with 23 Avenue to the south at 17 Street. But that access point also crosses the train tracks about two kilometres to the south.

There have been several fatal crashes on Maple Road over the years: a 35-year-old man was killed last summer and in 2021, when a 34-year-old woman was hit by a train while trying to run across the tracks. She was taken to hospital in critical condition and died the next day.

Global News has spoken with area residents frustrated to see fire trucks and ambulances blocked for several minutes at a time on Maple Road as trains passed through.

In January 2021, a vehicle on a driveway near 39 Avenue and 6 Street went up in flames while the responding emergency crews were stuck on the other side of a train for about three minutes.

In the end, from the 911 call being placed to crews arriving on scene, 13 minutes had passed.

In 2022, the City of Edmonton did look into making upgrades to roads, but council ultimately decided the $11 million price tag was too steep, plus the move could set a precedent since access roads are supposed to be built by developers, not the municipality.

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City won’t step in to expand access to southeast Edmonton community

While residents are glad to see the stop signs removed, they hope it eventually paves the way for a solution that’s not about signs or lights, and addresses the longstanding rail crossing concerns.

“Get these alternate routes, because for safety issues, we really need to have alternate access to the neighbourhood,” said Peterson.

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