A few things:
- There isn't the proper right-of-way available to expand CHB to be an expressway, let alone the freeway standard Airport Trail would have been with the tunnel. It would cost as much as the tunnel to buy up the appropriate land to make up for the lack of the Airport tunnel. The city just went through this discussion with the right of way on Metis Trail.
- A number of large residential communities are growing or exist on CHB on the east side of Deerfoot. You'd need interchanges for all those access points, more money spent compared to Airport Trail.
- A large industrial development is predicated on heavy goods movement. CHB is not designed for heavy goods movement. Again, all those communities probably don't want to pretend they live on 52nd Street in the SE all the time.
It's great that we all have these ideas for alternatives, but I can guarantee you they've been considered already. They aren't so stupid to not ask "why not just upgrade CHB?"
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