Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigtime
Excuse the gaudy MS Paint, here is the explanation for the plan:
Note that on the existing terminal the middle pier (B/C) does NOT have the hammerhead end. That may be a future expansion possibility. |
Also, the current IFP construction doesn't have the corner to the south at the east end. There's the expansion to the B/C pier, then the extension of the IFP currently being built (maybe a couple), and then what you've marked as future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyler
What are the giant circles at the top?
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Road interchange locations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
I'm so glad that someone else said it....I didn't want to seem like the only one who had no clue what this was showing. All I can figure out is that, based on glancing at information now and again in the media, is that this is over budget. They have to upgrade a number of other streets and the airport authority pays something like 1/3 of the cost for this. The tunnel itself might stay in the budget, but when you add in these other things its what....$200M more? Thats pretty crazy if true.
I really don't know the ins and outs, so I'm sure that someone will probably jump all over me for saying that.
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The tunnel is on budget, all of the other road upgrades that you hear in the media are road upgrades that would be happening at some point in the future anyway. As an example, the construction of 96th Ave between 36th Street and 60th Street would be done in the near future tunnel or no tunnel. Interchanges would be needed in the future in the area whether the tunnel went in or not. For such things, saying that the cost of those interchanges should be included as part of the tunnel cost (as some media and some Aldermen - ahem Lowe - have done) doesn't make much sense.
The city gets $20 million (I think?) towards the first phase of interchanges on Airport Trail (I think these will go ahead as soon as the MSI program is extended due to growth in the NE area), and then 50% of the cost of the future flyovers that are decades away. Without an agreement, the city would have received ZERO help from the Airport Authority on these. It's true that the first phase of interchanges will go ahead sooner then they otherwise would have.
The reclassification of Metis Trail as a arterial road instead of a skeletal road (going through council today), which was made possible by the tunnel construction, will save the city roughly $200 million dollars itself.
The $294 million project budget for the tunnel includes:
Tunnel construction - including electrical and mechanical systems, etc
Roadway Construction through tunnel to 36th Street
Project financing
Concessions to Airport Authority
Contingency
Widening Airport Trail from Deerfoot to Barlow Trail to 6 lanes
You will note that what I've bolded really has nothing to do with the actual tunnel either, and would be something that would have been required either way.
The contingency for the project was a higher percentage than normal. We won't know until the project is complete how much was used, but there is potential for money left in the contingency, which could nearly cover the cost of the phase one interchanges (together with the Airport Authority's share).