Quote:
Originally Posted by Acey
Except the land wasn't set aside and had to be acquired from TTN for $260M in a landmark deal that resulted in significant penalty to the province if the time constraints were not met, that's why we're having this discussion in the first place. I'm also curious as to where the road is unsafe?
I have no dog in this fight, I really don't care. Just trying to get on the same page.
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A lot of land for the ring road as a whole was set aside, the portion that was purchased and transferred from TTN was at least part of the overall plan, or the preferred route.
Having grown up in the SW where Southland, Anderson, 90th Avenue extensions are now, it was always interesting to me how much land wasn't developed into housing then. Now that everything has been finished, you can see how much of this design was part of the plan to cross the river and connect with 22X etc.
As for the safety, I do think signage could be drastically improved. For a new, modern, busy and expensive built road, it would not be out of the question to have location markers all along the road for emergencies and breakdowns. Having markings every 100 or 200 meters indicating where someone is in the event of a breakdown/emergency. A 1, A 2, A 3 etc.
The road 100% could benefit from the safety wiring that is common on Highway 2 and on Deerfoot.
If you drive the road and look at the ditch and some of the catch basins and more, you can see how single car accidents result in death and significant injuries. It's Calgary, so we have to deal with terrible winter weather, people sliding into the ditch, live animals, medical events and more.
Whenever a serious crash or a death occurs on this road or others, I always wonder if we had designed it with safety top of mind, would this death or injury occur? Things do happen but does a lack of safety features play a role? It's one thing for older infrastructure to lack safety features but it's another thing for brand new, expensive road to do the same.
The part through the TTN is very dangerous due to icing on the bridge and all the wildlife that comes up from Fish Creek Park. Is it any wonder why accidents happen all the time or near misses and people ending up in the ditch either injured, killed or with significant damage to their car?