Case Study: What We Heard Report: Accelerated Roadwork Program - VLW
Location: Edmonton
Date: 2026
Client: City of Edmonton
Service: What We Heard Report
What We Heard Reports summarize public feedback and its impact on decision-making. They support transparency, accountability and trust, even in non-traditional engagement settings. In 2025, Edmonton’s City Council accepted a proposal to allow an accelerated roadwork program to be implemented as part of the Valley Line West LRT construction project. This led to a series of intersections being fully or partially closed, resulting in more concentrated impacts over a shorter time frame than the initial phased approach.
Public engagement was not undertaken prior to the decision, but with impacts felt across multiple communities, there was a responsibility to show how feedback was heard and acted on. Demonstrating transparency and accountability was essential to maintaining public trust for this non-typical construction approach.
Find out how reVerb created this What we Heard Report.
The ask
In early 2026, project leadership proposed hosting community meetings to gather feedback on the 2025 accelerated roadwork program and meet the project's public transparency requirements. While well-intentioned, this approach presented risks. Townhalls can attract highly vocal participants and may not reflect the broader public experience. reVerb identified that this format could put the City in a reactive position without producing actionable insights.
Instead, reVerb recommended a comprehensive “What We Heard” report grounded in feedback already collected throughout the construction season.
Codifying and analyzing data
Our team reviewed and analyzed the data captured during the 2025 accelerated roadwork program, including more than 100 construction-related inquiries, 42 business outreach sessions, engagement with over 80 businesses and institutions, presentations to community leagues, and in-person interactions at public events. These sources were codified into themes reflecting feedback on the accelerated work program. This was paired with quantitative insights from the City’s Insight Survey, which captured feedback from 3,481 Edmontonians following the disruptive work.
Delivering transparency
The final report outlines what was heard, highlighting issues faced by multiple audiences, and demonstrates how feedback informed real-time responses during construction and supported ongoing decision-making.
This approach gave the City a more representative understanding of public sentiment while avoiding the risks associated with townhall-style engagement. It provided actionable insights for future construction planning and communications while demonstrating transparency, accountability and a data-driven approach to public feedback.
The report was distributed to the project’s newsletter subscribers and lives as a record on the project webpage.
