EDMONTON - Downtown Edmonton’s sprawling indoor pedway system is about to undergo a major expansion, extending its reach throughout the city core.

The new Edmonton Arena District is driving much of the anticipated growth as city planners, working closely with developers, seek to integrate several new trophy buildings into the current tri-level indoor pathway network, which includes underground, ground-level and second-storey pedways.

“We’re going to have 40 per cent more pedways by the time the buildings under construction right now are built, never mind what else might be constructed,” says Jim Taylor, president of the Downtown Business Association, and a big fan of pedways.

“We can’t live like people in Vancouver or San Francisco. With our long winters in Edmonton the pedways really help people to get around without having to face the snow and the wind on a cold February day.”

Here’s a quick overview of the expansion plans that lie ahead, according to Taylor and Duncan Fraser, a senior planner with the City of Edmonton:

- The new Winter Garden over 104 Avenue is by far the largest and most visually striking of the new connections. Once completed it will serve as a grand southern gateway to the new Rogers Place arena, and a direct link to the new public plaza on the south side of 104 Avenue.

- Once inside the Rogers Place complex, pedestrians will be able to continue northward along a second-floor indoor pedway, which will ultimately connect at the north end of the complex to the new ground-level MacEwan LRT Station at 104 Street and 105 Avenue.

- On the south side of 104 Avenue, the new 50-storey Delta Edmonton hotel and adjoining condo complex above are expected to be linked by pedway to the City of Edmonton’s new 27-storey office tower, directly to the east, and the soaring new 62-storey Stantec Tower immediately to the south.

- The Bell Tower on 101 Street is also expected to be linked by pedway to the new city office tower. “The connection will be two storeys, with a pedway on the second floor and a Joey Tomato’s underneath,” says Taylor.

“So the city’s office tower will be connected to the Bell Tower, the Delta hotel to the west and the Stantec tower to the south, and they’ll all be connected to the Winter Garden and eventually to a highrise on the Greyhound site.”

- Meanwhile, older towers that aren’t yet tied into the city core’s 13-kilometre-long pedway network — such as the four-storey Bank of Montreal building at the southeast corner of 102 Avenue and 101 Street — will be linked to new developments.

A new pedway will integrate the BMO building with the new 25-storey Kelly Ramsey Tower next door, on the east side of 101 Street.

- At the same time, Kelly Ramsey will also be linked by new pedways to Scotia Place, to the south, and Manulife Place on the west side of 101 Street.

- That’s not all. There are additional pedway connections being kicked around to link the Epcor Centre on the east side of 101 Street to the new casino to the west, while another could connect the casino to the new arena complex.

- The new Royal Alberta Museum on the northwest corner of 104 Avenue and 97 Street is not yet linked into the pedway system, but that’s bound to change as well. Planners are eyeing a link to an existing underground pedway that currently runs between the Law Courts Building and the Brownlea Building.