Airport Tunnel Rejected Again? **UPDATE** It's built!

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by temple5

Currently 36 st is a 2 lane paved road (according to google maps - maybe this has changed).

As its currently agreed, Airport trail must end at 36 St - yes? Unless 2 interchanges are built at 19 and Barlow, Airport trail cannot be extended past this to Metis or to its logical connection at 60 St NE.

I cant say I am a frequent driver of 36 Street north of 32 Ave but unless some serious upgrading has been done, 36 St north of McKnight is a 2 lane road (I guess we can be thankful that its at last paved).

I am sure the tunnel will be used by at least a few cars an hour in its current configuration, I will drive through it when its done just to do so but as a condition of the airport (this is why I call them duchey) it cannot be extended to its logical connection at 60 St.

36 Street is just two lanes, but the intersection with Airport Trail is getting greatly expanded this summer to accept the connection. A couple of summers ago, the whole thing was repaved and had a centreline paved.

Certainly the capacity of 36th St is a limiting factor on how busy the tunnel will be. However, for the time being, it has enough capacity to handle the traffic that will be using the tunnel - and that's not because the tunnel won't be used all that much. 36th Street has a fair amount of traffic on it already, even with Metis Trail not too far away. The opening of the tunnel will definitely pull a little bit of traffic of of Metis and onto 36th Street (i.e. those who would use the tunnel).

As I said, users of the tunnel on opening day will include:

-Calgary Transit service between the NE LRT line and the airport
-People in the NE travelling to and from the Airport
-People in the NE travelling to and from industrial parks around the Airport, including Aurora business park on the other side of Deerfoot. These industrial parks are expanding rapidly.
-People needing a crosstown route between the NE and the NC/NW
-People accessing new developments such as Cityscape and Jacksonport from Deerfoot
-People driving from Airdrie, etc to the Sunridge/Horizon industrial parks, Peter Lougheed Hospital, Sunridge Mall, etc.

With a connection between 36th St and 60th St, connecting Airprot Trail together all the way across from Harvest Hills Blvd to Stoney Trail, you can add:

-People in southern Calgary accessing airport, or nearby industrial parks.
-Deerfoot access for more and more people in the developing area in the NE, inside the ring road.
- People in NC/NW Calgary wanting access to HWY 1 East.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by temple5

As an airport/airlines/aircraft nerd I kept as close as anyone to the news about this. The only condition I remember hearing was that the City would have to pay for interchanges once traffic got to a certain level.

I never once heard that the interchanges were intertwined with extending airport trail past 36 st.

Maybe I missed the news about it ending, I remember hear a bunch about extending it to 36 st, I guess I foolishly assumed that meant it would connect and go futher, not create a T intersection at 36 St.

It was one of the last minute demands by the airport.

Close to the end, the airport said they wouldn't allow the tunnel unless the interchanges at 19th and Barlow were built at the same time. Up until then, it was the city's intention to build the connection all the way to 60th st.

The city couldn't afford to add the cost of those interchanges into the project budget, so the city proposed a compromise (in order to get the deal done) in which the city couldn't build a connection to Metis Trail until the interchanges were built. The airport authority agreed to this.

However, the city's traffic projections have always shown that Airport Trail will function well without interchanges for a couple of decades. The iarport disagreed, and that's why they made the demand. I just don't see how a three lane each way Airport Trail ins't easily enough to handle the traffic for quite a while. Similar roads in Calgary have 60-70 thousand cars per day, and Airport Trail will have around 20,000 in that area at the start. The city's plans never had them building more than one lane each way between 60th Street and Metis, so I don't know how that would funnel enough traffic onto Airport Trail where 3 lanes each way by the airport would be jammed.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

However, the city's traffic projections have always shown that Airport Trail will function well without interchanges for a couple of decades. The iarport disagreed, and that's why they made the demand. I just don't see how a three lane each way Airport Trail ins't easily enough to handle the traffic for quite a while. Similar roads in Calgary have 60-70 thousand cars per day, and Airport Trail will have around 20,000 in that area at the start. The city's plans never had them building more than one lane each way between 60th Street and Metis, so I don't know how that would funnel enough traffic onto Airport Trail where 3 lanes each way by the airport would be jammed.

I think it just comes down to differing predictions. Wouldn't be the first time there's been conflicting reports against the City's numbers. The industrial expansion of the NE, especially around the airport, will eventually clog up the area with traffic. Traffic lights at 19th Street and Barlow Trail will be the bottlenecks, not the number of lanes on Airport Trail.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I think it just comes down to differing predictions. Wouldn't be the first time there's been conflicting reports against the City's numbers. The industrial expansion of the NE, especially around the airport, will eventually clog up the area with traffic. Traffic lights at 19th Street and Barlow Trail will be the bottlenecks, not the number of lanes on Airport Trail.

The kind of traffic will be a factor as well, as there will be some truck traffic on Airport Trail, and through the tunnel.

Even with that though, interchanges are probably 10+ years away from being required. A truck slowly pulling away from a light hurts traffic flow much less when there are two other lanes vs only one other lane.

[fredr123]

I don't imagine the City would be very good at predicting the best time to install the interchange. If past experience is any indication, they (like most levels of government) would probably wait until it is long past due for an interchange to begin construction. At that point, the delays caused by construction would have a much greater negative impact on traffic than if they had built the interchanges earlier.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by fredr123

I don't imagine the City would be very good at predicting the best time to install the interchange. If past experience is any indication, they (like most levels of government) would probably wait until it is long past due for an interchange to begin construction. At that point, the delays caused by construction would have a much greater negative impact on traffic than if they had built the interchanges earlier.

That's more a matter of funding than not knowing when they are required though.

[SebC]

Seems to me like what the Airport is doing is saying to the sitting "if you don't alleviate one traffic jam, we're going to cause another!"

Wouldn't connecting airport trail with to Stoney help alleviate strain on the Deerfoot route the airport? Thus making their demands essentially threatening the city with mutually assured destruction?

[MrMastodonFarm]

So for those in the know, follow what's going on etc can you break down exactly what is going on, why this larger runway is needed, what effect will it have, bigger planes more airlines etc?

I think I know most of the answers and I'd imagine it's scattered throughout the thread but some sort of summary would be great for the ignorant ones like me.

[Acey]

YYC is actually at capacity now as far as the airfield is concerned; there are effectively only 2 runways and they intersect which obviously limits concurrent operations. Flow control and delays in the afternoon are not uncommon, even though it doesn't seem like that busy of an airport compared to a Toronto or Vancouver. Bigger planes? Sort of; the runway we have now is actually the longest one in Canada and the new one they're building is even longer. So we can take the biggest planes now (and have done so), though they might be weight restricted. In other words, no airline is currently not serving Calgary because our airfield/terminal can't handle their airplane. In fact, overall, YYC has been losing international routes/carriers in the last few years as opposed to gaining them.

The huge new terminal will be largely empty for the majority of the day. I'm not even trying to be a pessimist here, but it seems our current numbers point to this. I don't doubt that all this expansion and new airside facilities will serve Calgary well long-term, but for now... it's going to be quite under-utilized.

Others more closely follow our pax numbers and know more details so they'd better be able to answer your question.

[TurnedTheCorner]

I get so happy every time this is bumped, because I was concerned the tunnel was rejected -- but whew, it's now approved!

[You Need a Thneed]

Newest update from the city's website:

Construction update
Closure of 36 Street N.E. near the Airport

36 Street N.E. will be closed between 80 Avenue and Country Hills Boulevard beginning April 8, 2013, so that the roadway between Airport Trail and Country Hills Boulevard can be reconstructed and expanded from two to four lanes.

The closure will also allow the Airport Trail connections to be made onto 36 Street going east out of the Airport Trail tunnel. During the closure, motorists are encouraged to use Métis Trail as the main alternative.

Even though the tunnel structure has been poured, work continues on many fronts. Backfilling the storm tank and portal walls continues along with work inside the tunnel, such as fireproofing the walls and roof, electrical and mechanical work, and installing lighting and fans.

This closure will last until August. Also, the intersection of Barlow/Airport trail will have some lane closures during the summer as well so that the same connection can be completed on the other side of the tunnel.

[You Need a Thneed]

April 2013 update from the city doesn't give concrete truck stats:

April 2013 Update

[You Need a Thneed]

Regarding the 36th Street Closure:

Project webpage from Calgary.ca

Map and Detour

[Meelapo]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Regarding the 36th Street Closure:

Project webpage from Calgary.ca

Map and Detour

Does anyone know why on earth Metis Trail is two lanes per way (north and south) but then turns into one lane a little after Country Hills Blvd and 80th Avenue NE? It turns into quite a bottleneck when everyone is driving to work and away from work. It seems like it wasn't planned right.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by Meelapo

Does anyone know why on earth Metis Trail is two lanes per way (north and south) but then turns into one lane a little after Country Hills Blvd and 80th Avenue NE? It turns into quite a bottleneck when everyone is driving to work and away from work. It seems like it wasn't planned right.

Buddy wouldn't sell his land to the city. If you notice, the start of two lanes is there, it just stops at the property where there's a house on the east side of the road.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Meelapo

Does anyone know why on earth Metis Trail is two lanes per way (north and south) but then turns into one lane a little after Country Hills Blvd and 80th Avenue NE? It turns into quite a bottleneck when everyone is driving to work and away from work. It seems like it wasn't planned right.

Yes, it was a land ownership issue. The city could not acquire the land needed to widen the road. However, the problem owner has sold his land to the developer, and acquiring the land now shouldn't be an issue.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Co...110/story.html

[FireFly]

I didn't realize that was Oscar Fech! Hahahaha.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by FireFly

I didn't realize that was Oscar Fech! Hahahaha.

Can you believe it?

You have to love Fech, such a character.

[You Need a Thneed]

Just sharing a picture from Calgary City News:



From here.

[You Need a Thneed]

From a tender document, regarding the Airport Trail Tunnel:

"is planned to be open as early as 2013 October 31, but no later than 2014 May 10."