Ring Road To Nowhere - Page 224 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

MacDaddy77 · 10-04-2021, 02:30 PM

Living in Bridlewood and frequenting the mountains this road now open is glorious and will only get better when fully complete.

Acey · 10-04-2021, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

The rumour I heard (and I have no way of knowing about the accuracy of this to be fair) is that the maintenance contract didn't start until now, so there was no chance of early opening. That makes sense to me, but I don't pretend to understand why they couldn't have pushed this along. I could've saved them a chunk of money by not installing the lights at 53rd!

53rd lights are the city I'm pretty sure, in anticipation of Providence. Might as well put em in now.

As for early opening, the entire contract is publicly available and I've posted snippets of it in here. The parameters of opening early are very clearly codified in the contract, there would be no reason for additional lawyers to be involved in such a negotiation. They would not lose money by opening early, generally... as it simply shifts up the start of the 30-year clock before they hand the road back to the province. But there is also no incentive to do it, either. So they simply chose to not do it.

Slava · 10-04-2021, 05:12 PM

I appreciate all the info you’ve posted here.

I disagree on the 53rd lights (it’s completely ridiculous to finally get this all set and put a set of lights on the free flowing highway). I mean, what should have happened is the developer should’ve built an overpass there as part of the costs of constructing the new community, but instead we have a currently useless light that will eventually be useful and then the community will outgrow that usefulness and we’ll need the overpass.

Acey · 10-04-2021, 05:46 PM

It's a different scenario than the Stoney interchanges in the north. With overpasses at Fish Creek and 162 now open courtesy Alberta taxpayers, it'd be poor ROI for the developer to subsidize a 53 St interchange with a levy.

GGG · 10-04-2021, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slava

The rumour I heard (and I have no way of knowing about the accuracy of this to be fair) is that the maintenance contract didn't start until now, so there was no chance of early opening. That makes sense to me, but I don't pretend to understand why they couldn't have pushed this along. I could've saved them a chunk of money by not installing the lights at 53rd!

I think it was risk mitigation.

The section through the reserve needed to be done by X date or it would have been a billion dollar problem. So you prioritize that scope and only that scope.

Then the contractor would want to avoid heating and hoarding costs over winter so they wouldn’t push ahead with finishing the rest. You can also cut your less efficient crews at that point as well and lower cost that way.

In general shortening schedule increases costs.

Lubicon · 10-05-2021, 01:29 PM

Alright CP's. I'm potentially heading to Okotoks from NW Calgary this weekend. Using the new road but wondering if it makes sense to now turn down the cluster that is McLeod to leave town or to continue to #2 and down that way. Second option seems more appealing since there are no lights and one could maintain highway speeds but is the bridge construction over the Bow on 22x happening? That might cancel out any gains by staying on the freeways.

Madman · 10-05-2021, 01:35 PM

Ring Road to Macleod is your best option - no need to worry about the 22X bridge construction as that's east of where you're going.

btimbit · 10-05-2021, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Alright CP's. I'm potentially heading to Okotoks from NW Calgary this weekend. Using the new road but wondering if it makes sense to now turn down the cluster that is McLeod to leave town or to continue to #2 and down that way. Second option seems more appealing since there are no lights and one could maintain highway speeds but is the bridge construction over the Bow on 22x happening? That might cancel out any gains by staying on the freeways.

I'd just take MacLeod. The two or three lights don't cancel out the extra time to get to Deerfoot

Barnes · 10-05-2021, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Alright CP's. I'm potentially heading to Okotoks from NW Calgary this weekend. Using the new road but wondering if it makes sense to now turn down the cluster that is McLeod to leave town or to continue to #2 and down that way. Second option seems more appealing since there are no lights and one could maintain highway speeds but is the bridge construction over the Bow on 22x happening? That might cancel out any gains by staying on the freeways.

The bridge construction wont really affect the time, it's still two lanes each way but it's probably still faster to go down McLeod regardless. It's 6+ more KMs to to go down highway 2 and there's only 3 lights on McLeod.

Acey · 10-05-2021, 05:20 PM

The bridge construction has led to catastrophic back ups at times, in both directions... work sometimes randomly requires one of the 4 lanes to close. I'd avoid if able.

sleepingmoose · 10-05-2021, 07:43 PM

I don’t go that way a lot, so maybe it was this bad before, but it definitely seemed like the SW portion of the ring road caused catastrophic failure on Sarcee at Bow Trail northbound today - backed up solid from Bow to 17 Ave. Yikes. Could be a long few years.

Weitz · 10-05-2021, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

I don’t go that way a lot, so maybe it was this bad before, but it definitely seemed like the SW portion of the ring road caused catastrophic failure on Sarcee at Bow Trail northbound today - backed up solid from Bow to 17 Ave. Yikes. Could be a long few years.

It was bad before covid. Slightly worse today I thought. Avoid at all costs. 69th to bow might be better.

Acey · 10-05-2021, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

I don’t go that way a lot, so maybe it was this bad before, but it definitely seemed like the SW portion of the ring road caused catastrophic failure on Sarcee at Bow Trail northbound today - backed up solid from Bow to 17 Ave. Yikes. Could be a long few years.

It was already horrendously bad before this week so it's only slightly worse. Looks like it'll be 3 more years before there's a decent alternative, unfortunately.

Regulator75 · 10-06-2021, 08:43 AM

Is 22X to northbound 201 open yet?

Calgary14 · 10-06-2021, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regulator75

Is 22X to northbound 201 open yet?

Yes

Joborule · 10-06-2021, 10:04 AM

How has Crowchild Trail and Glenmore been holding up in the AM rush hour so far?

Shazam · 10-06-2021, 11:48 AM

So is the plan on the west side to have the NW part of the ring road join to 8, and then you're supposed to drive on 8 to get to the SW part? Are they keeping that part of 8 as "highway 8" or are there other plans for that part?

Weitz · 10-06-2021, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shazam

So is the plan on the west side to have the NW part of the ring road join to 8, and then you're supposed to drive on 8 to get to the SW part? Are they keeping that part of 8 as "highway 8" or are there other plans for that part?

Its already tsu tina trail isnt it?

TorqueDog · 10-06-2021, 12:47 PM

My wife took the SWRR yesterday evening to and from a friend's place. She found that it was pretty much equivalent in terms of how much time it would normally take her to go from our place (Crowchild @ 50 Ave SW) to our friend in Auburn Bay.

One thing she did note was that it was very easy to going southbound from Glenmore Trail, but coming back on Stoney / 22x Westbound it was more confusing, as the exit to Stoney/Tsuut'ina Northbound came up very quickly and wasn't -- in her view -- very well signed. The name change also threw her for a bit of a loop and she ended up going too far west and having to detour to get back onto the SWRR northbound.

I'll give it a try myself today, I'm curious to see what it's like for myself.

Lubicon · 10-06-2021, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joborule

How has Crowchild Trail and Glenmore been holding up in the AM rush hour so far?

Drove it this morning for the first time since the new RR opened. Traffic seemed a little heavier than what I have experienced before but I didn't pay much attention to how much might have been coming NB>EB up the new road.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shazam

So is the plan on the west side to have the NW part of the ring road join to 8, and then you're supposed to drive on 8 to get to the SW part? Are they keeping that part of 8 as "highway 8" or are there other plans for that part?

That part of 8 is getting upgraded and will become part of the Ring Road. Not sure if officially that will push the 'start' of highway 8 further west.