Quote:
Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed
I'm guessing the associated road roads are around 5-10% of the entire project, and I would think closer to the 5% side. We are only talking about approx 1 mile of roadway here. The rest of Airport Trail will be there eventually whether the tunnel is built or not, so you can't include that in a cost comparison.
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I cant say for sure how long the trenching would be but even the airport letter mentions that the actual "tunnel" is only roughly half the cost of the total project. Maybe the airport is making them tunnel under all the whole airfield now which wouldnt be cheap. I can only assume that its only under the runway/taxiway and a buffer to the east and west.
But what I have heard is the costs being thrown around today and for the past year also include upgrades to 44 street so that can replace Barlow as a north/south corridor which is the reason for the whole discussion in the first place.
If they dont tunnel/trench now then the undertaking of tunneling in the future would be a massive undertaking because there is no way the airport would close operations of the runway for future construction which means they need to tunnel C Train style under the runway and need to do so with enough strength so that if a fully loaded A380 ever comes to Calgary (cant see that ever happening except maybe Emerates) then the tunnel needs to be able to support its full weight and not just that of the overhead ground.
I honestly dont see the wait and do it later option as a legit option. It would be cheaper to put the CTrain underground downtown then tunnel a 4/6 lane highway under an existing heavy runway and at no time would council fund a program to build an airport tunnel instead of tunneling the CTrain downtown.