diff --git a/aio/src/app/documents/document.service.ts b/aio/src/app/documents/document.service.ts
index fb12bfc157..bbc68ea013 100644
--- a/aio/src/app/documents/document.service.ts
+++ b/aio/src/app/documents/document.service.ts
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ export class DocumentService {
   }
 
   private computePath(url) {
-    url = url.startsWith('/') ? url : '/' + url;
+    url = '/' + url;
     url = url.endsWith('/') ? url + 'index' : url;
     return 'content/docs' + url + '.json';
   }
diff --git a/aio/src/app/shared/location.service.spec.ts b/aio/src/app/shared/location.service.spec.ts
index 71b209f3f6..7c589348bb 100644
--- a/aio/src/app/shared/location.service.spec.ts
+++ b/aio/src/app/shared/location.service.spec.ts
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ describe('LocationService', () => {
 
       let initialUrl;
       service.currentUrl.subscribe(url => initialUrl = url);
-      expect(initialUrl).toEqual('/next-url3');
+      expect(initialUrl).toEqual('next-url3');
     });
 
     it('should emit all location changes after it has been subscribed to', () => {
@@ -51,10 +51,10 @@ describe('LocationService', () => {
       location.simulatePopState('/next-url3');
 
       expect(urls).toEqual([
-        '/initial-url3',
-        '/next-url1',
-        '/next-url2',
-        '/next-url3'
+        'initial-url3',
+        'next-url1',
+        'next-url2',
+        'next-url3'
       ]);
     });
 
@@ -78,15 +78,15 @@ describe('LocationService', () => {
         location.simulatePopState('/next-url3');
 
         expect(urls1).toEqual([
-          '/initial-url3',
-          '/next-url1',
-          '/next-url2',
-          '/next-url3'
+          'initial-url3',
+          'next-url1',
+          'next-url2',
+          'next-url3'
         ]);
 
         expect(urls2).toEqual([
-          '/next-url2',
-          '/next-url3'
+          'next-url2',
+          'next-url3'
         ]);
     });
   });
diff --git a/aio/src/app/shared/location.service.ts b/aio/src/app/shared/location.service.ts
index bc27aee3e8..155ffc81e6 100644
--- a/aio/src/app/shared/location.service.ts
+++ b/aio/src/app/shared/location.service.ts
@@ -10,13 +10,22 @@ export class LocationService {
   get currentUrl() { return this.urlSubject.asObservable(); }
 
   constructor(private location: Location) {
-    this.urlSubject = new BehaviorSubject(location.path(true));
-    this.location.subscribe(state => this.urlSubject.next(state.url));
+
+    const initialUrl = this.stripLeadingSlashes(location.path(true));
+    this.urlSubject = new BehaviorSubject(initialUrl);
+
+    this.location.subscribe(state => {
+      const url = this.stripLeadingSlashes(state.url);
+      return this.urlSubject.next(url);
+    });
   }
 
   go(url: string) {
-    url = this.location.normalize(url);
     this.location.go(url);
     this.urlSubject.next(url);
   }
+
+  private stripLeadingSlashes(url: string) {
+    return url.replace(/^\/+/, '');
+  }
 }