Ring Road To Nowhere

[Acey]

Originally Posted by timun

I presume that the portion on Tsuut'ina land had to be named Tsuut'ina Trail as part of the land swap deal. (I have a copy of the agreement somewhere, but I don't really want to go fishing for it at the moment, hahaha.)

The Alberta/TTN deal of 2013 here remains the binding document and make no mention of it, and the name wasn't announced till 2017, so it seems like it was still on the table. Maybe it was in the federal document.

Originally Posted by timun

It is a bit of a slap in the face to name the road after another tribe, one which had essentially no involvement in the road's development.

Yes, but I am wondering if there was opposition from Stoney for the balance of the SW to be named Tsuu'tina.

[Mazrim]

The new pedestrian bridge near Anderson Road opened up recently, so I took a ride out to see how things looked. They were painting it when I was there. Here's an album of full res pictures:
https://imgur.com/a/mBII6Fz

And here's a few shots worth sharing:

For Acey, here's how the Anderson interchange looks. Not really sticking out badly.

Spoiler!

The pedestrian bridge doesn't look as imposing when the scaffolding is gone.

Spoiler!

Wide road is wide.

Spoiler!

[Madman]

Great, now I feel old. I'll be able to tell my kids there used to be a single lane bridge we had to use when we were kids and the road was so steep in the winter the Pontiac used to spin out all the time on it.

[getbak]

That's not a median, it's a large.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

They should have given each segment a name, so there is no confusion over intersections like when the traffic reporter says there is an incident at TCH and Stoney. Of course now it's all just a confusing disaster. I'm sure they'll sort this out in 10 years once all the signs have been up for awhile and they can spend loads of money on new signage.

Or you can just say "Stoney and TransCanada West" and everyone will know what you're talking about.

[powderjunkie]

Tsuu T'ina Trail for everything west of Deerfoot Trail; Stoney Trail for everything to the east.

Would need to change a bunch of signs, but what the hell, we're in a recession so just make sure they are made by locals and installed by locals.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Wide road is wide.

Spoiler!

I still can't believe we couldn't do an expedite for a redesign on this to still get it done in time. Even if you pay out the wazoo for it you'd still come out ahead. Even if you pay $100 million for that redesign and at the table with TTN for the amendment and $200 million to the contractor to fast track you still come out ahead from what I've heard was $350M-$450M in additional cost, and don't have a 90 meter median for no reason. I dunno what any of the actual numbers are but I just refuse to believe it.

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Tsuu T'ina Trail for everything west of Deerfoot Trail; Stoney Trail for everything to the east.

That's decent, and I'd have been on board if it was the plan from day 1. For now, Glenmore to 22X as Tsuut'ina would require the least signage change, and the name changes would occur at 90° bends in the road/major interchanges.

Somehow I just don't feel like Stoney should lose half the ring they already had because the province is dumb.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by Acey

A lot of big changes on 22X next week. It starts at some point Monday when access from Shawville Blvd to 22X closes, and both the 6 Street and McKevitt interchanges partially open. Then on Tuesday parts of the new 22X/Macleod interchange start opening. Life gets easier for some people, and permanently more difficult for a lot of people.

Good luck with the mayhem as people will have no idea where they're going.

Spoiler!

Living in Bridlewood this is great news. Acey, any insight when the ring road from 22x to Glenmore will open? it looks close other than 162 overpass

[macker]

Did the overpasses at James Mckevitt & 6th street end up opening?

[TorqueDog]

Still waiting for undercoverbrother to take a video of him ragequitting in the middle of traffic hell on the new ring road.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy77

Living in Bridlewood this is great news. Acey, any insight when the ring road from 22x to Glenmore will open? it looks close other than 162 overpass

Glenmore to Fish Creek Blvd/146 Ave will open October 1. Fish Creek Blvd to 22X is a different section and actually has a target date of Oct 1, 2021 but it looks like they will be done long before that, possibly before the end of this year.

Originally Posted by macker

Did the overpasses at James Mckevitt & 6th street end up opening?

I don't think so, they must have fallen a few days behind. Maybe today.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by macker

Did the overpasses at James Mckevitt & 6th street end up opening?

As of early Monday morning it was still not open - may have changed since then

[Acey]

Something has changed this morning as per this tweet, but I'm not sure what and how it relates to the dates originally cited last week.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1303701340871245824

[vegasbound]

Originally Posted by macker

Did the overpasses at James Mckevitt & 6th street end up opening?

Wasnt yesterday afternoon. Didnt look ready at all.

[MacDaddy77]

Just took a drive and nothings open yet. Signs all say today though.

They must be opening a portion of the west bound RR under 6th street or are cutting access to James mckevitt for a while. Don’t see how you could access that without the westbound lanes being opened up to the merge at least

[timun]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Wide road is wide.

That was the first thing I noticed when I checked it out on Sunday, the huge width is very... stark. It really sets this road apart from any other I can think of in the province. It reminds me somewhat of parts of the interstates in the US; I'm thinking specifically of parts of I-17 in Arizona, and I-81 in Virginia, where the median splits quite wide. But usually they do so for a geographic reason, to go around a hill or a forest or whatever. The southwest ring road seems so bizarre by comparison because from a boots-on-the-ground perspective there's no obvious reason to make the median anywhere near as wide as it is.

I was also impressed at how busy the Costco was; the parking lot was completely full.

[Table 5]

So why did they make the median so wide? Are they planning to run something (ie. a mountain range) down the middle in the future?

[Acey]

It is so wide because the original plan was for a second freeway going down the middle like Chicago's Dan Ryan or Toronto 401, like this:



That's because we had plans for a second ring road way beyond Stoney that couldn't be built in the SW because of Tsuu T'ina, so SW Stoney was going to double up and function as the inner and outer ring road. Then we smartened up and bailed on the second ring but didn't re-do the design so a 90 meter median is the end result. There is another highway in the province that has a massive median for exactly the same purpose, and that is QE2's 100+ meter median between Leduc and Edmonton.

Originally Posted by MacDaddy77

They must be opening a portion of the west bound RR under 6th street

Yes.

[Muffins]

I wouldn't say they bailed on the second ring road as that was a way down the road idea to begin with, and the wide median was to future proof it for that. It's more like they admitted it was probably never going to happen, but at that point the ball was already rolling.

[VladtheImpaler]

That's fine - we can put the Alberta Independence monument there in the near future...