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As federal, provincial and municipal politicians gathered in downtown Edmonton Friday to break ground on the new Valley LRT line a group of protestors crashed the party to voice their displeasure with the $1.8 billion project.

For the past four years, the Save The Footbridge group has opposed plans to tear down the Cloverdale Footbridge, which crosses the North Saskatchewan River, connecting Henrietta Muir Edwards Park in Cloverdale and Louise McKinney Park in Riverdale.

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On Friday, protestors in attendance stood holding signs that read “Save Our River Valley” and “Valley LRT Destroys Parks” and began chanting as Edmonton’s Mayor Don Iveson lead a ceremony near the future site of the Muttart Conservatory LRT stop.

The line runs through 1.6 kilometres of river valley parks, something group founder Kristine Kowalchuk says is unacceptable.

“We need to preserve our river valley, but we’re also standing up for public transit that is affordable, convenient and sustainable — none of which the Valley line is,” said Kowalchuk. “It destroys parkland and it sacrifices the livability of the core to service the suburbs, which runs directly opposite to sustainable urban planning principles.”