Some Calgarians are worried about the impact of a major road construction project on an environmentally sensitive area in the Elbow River Valley and voiced their concerns at a hearing on Monday.

Construction of the southwest leg of the ring road was halted in August after an environmental appeal was filed about the impact of the work on critical wetlands.

“The work on the bridge that crosses the Elbow River is still ongoing as well as most of the other construction work.  There are some parts that are held up as a result of this stay but we've managed to work around it to this point,” said Adam Johnson, from Alberta Transportation.

The southwest section will run from Highway 22X to Glenmore Trail at a cost of $1.4B and will stretch more than 30 kilometres when it is complete.

Opponents of the project say it will cause unnecessary environmental harm.

“To destroy 24 wetlands in this area in Calgary for flood mitigation and protecting the filtration of our water is unacceptable,” said Allie Tulick, appellant. “We want to see this road done properly and we think that there is, in this design work, room to avoid wetlands.”

Over the next three days, the Environmental Appeals Board will hear from all parties involved.

“The board will make a recommendation to either confirm the approval as it is, reverse it, which means send people back to the drawing board or alternatively we could also vary it. We make that recommendation to the minister and then she has the final say,” said Gilbert Van Nes, Environmental Appeals Board.

The city and province have said that impact on the environment is unavoidable but officials are confident the mitigation measures are sufficient.

The board is expected to make its recommendations in November and the province says the project is on track to be completed in the fall of 2021.