Ring Road To Nowhere

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

There is a freaking park with NOTHING on the NE corner of Sarcee/Bow, there must be a way to expand the roads and make a better interchange there.

Fun fact: there was a (very old) plan that had Shaganappi crossing the Bow to connect up with Sarcee up that corridor. But it was thankfully forgotten (I'm assuming because the loss of Edworthy Park wouldn't have been received well. And the cost).

Page 64 and 72 of this bad boy. 1970 road planning in all it's glory.

https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/w...onal-study.pdf

[Alpha_Q]

I live in Spruce Cliff and remember getting a mailer a couple decades ago about a plan to bridge the Sarcee Bow Trail cluster-love make but it involved the inclusion of a road extending through Edworthy and joining Shag. When the neighborhoods in the area reacted negatively to the road through Edworthy the entire idea was scrapped. (I seem to remember a few years later some alderperson or MLA saying a bridge was impossible because of the powerstation on the SW corner and underground springs in the area.) I hope the eventual opening of the ring road in 2048 eases some of the N S congestion.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

Fun fact: there was a (very old) plan that had Shaganappi crossing the Bow to connect up with Sarcee up that corridor. But it was thankfully forgotten (I'm assuming because the loss of Edworthy Park wouldn't have been received well. And the cost).

Page 64 and 72 of this bad boy. 1970 road planning in all it's glory.

https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/w...onal-study.pdf

I believe that there was also a plan to extend the south part of Sarcee through Bowness, over the river, through Bowmont Park, to connect with the prematurely-named north part of Sarcee.

Perhaps the planning of the the eventual ring road made that connection redundant, which was a big win for Bowmont Park. And now we have two Sarcee Trails that will never connect to confuse outsiders (though everyone uses GPS now anyway).

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

There is a freaking park with NOTHING on the NE corner of Sarcee/Bow, there must be a way to expand the roads and make a better interchange there.

I'm not a transportation engineer, but you are not moving that intersection to the north. And absolutely not to the northeast.

[Ugly Kid Joe]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Pavement on the SB lanes of the old bridge were being torn up yesterday when I drove past. Paving the crossover to shift NB traffic onto the new bridge and then I imagine they will do the same for the remainder of the old bridge. Was hoping for a full opening of the bridge this year but maybe the rehab is scheduled to coincide with full opening of the entire WRR in 2024?

Northbound traffic on the new bridge was open this morning. All lanes on the old bridge were closed.

[Acey]

We talked about Sarcee/Bow a couple years ago in here and it is indeed one of the worst at-grade intersections in the city in terms of total delay minutes. The city has obviously looked at it, most recently in 2015 when they were coming up with a plan for Sarcee/Richmond Rd. They've probably got a pretty good idea of what they want to do, but for now it's wait for the ring road to fully open, wait for a full year of ring road data + new Sarcee/Bow traffic data, wait for somebody to decide that it does still indeed need to be fixed, wait for money to implement as cheap an interchange as possible, design, build...

2015 Report

[woob]

Man, NB Stoney over the new Bow River bridge is a PITA now. I know why it is, I just want to complain about it.

[Instron4204]

According to a Calgary Herald article,“the West Calgary Ring Road will also have additional traffic movements available as of October 1st, 2023,”. Wonder if they will be opening up Old Banff Coach Rd and Bow Trail interchanges early?

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Instron4204

According to a Calgary Herald article,“the West Calgary Ring Road will also have additional traffic movements available as of October 1st, 2023,”. Wonder if they will be opening up Old Banff Coach Rd and Bow Trail interchanges early?

Seems reasonable. I haven't been in that area in over year but based on the original timeline before Enmax/supplied issues pushed the timeline it should be more than possible. Anything to provide some relief to Bow/Sarcee would be welcomed, I'm sure.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Acey

Seems reasonable. I haven't been in that area in over year but based on the original timeline before Enmax/supplied issues pushed the timeline it should be more than possible. Anything to provide some relief to Bow/Sarcee would be welcomed, I'm sure.

I used to be psyched for this possibility, but as someone mentioned earlier, I think this could totally backfire and just clog up everything on the hill (69th/85th/17th/Bow/OBCR) with shortcut seekers

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Instron4204

According to a Calgary Herald article,“the West Calgary Ring Road will also have additional traffic movements available as of October 1st, 2023,”. Wonder if they will be opening up Old Banff Coach Rd and Bow Trail interchanges early?

Realistically they could potentially open the TCH interchange (minus the movements of the new road up the COP hill). That would be a win in itself and seems to be so close to the finish line now. No more constructions zones through this area would be a starter.

[Calgary14]

It looks like one lane eastbound is now open on the new bridge between Cranston and Chaparral

[TheIronMaiden]

For those who haven't been following that closely, when is the south west ring road meant to be "done"

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

For those who haven't been following that closely, when is the south west ring road meant to be "done"

Which part?

The whole thing should be done in about a year

[TorqueDog]

For the West Ring Road (the part we're all waiting for), October 1, 2024 at the latest was the last date I heard.

The SWRR is the part that was already done from Glenmore to 22X/Macleod. That needed to be done sooner as there was a clause that would result in the land reverting to Tsuut'ina property if the project wasn't completed on time.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Which part?

The whole thing should be done in about a year

The part that I need to use is between highway 1 and 22x.

[sleepingmoose]

There's constant rumours that the province wants to open the West RR between TCH and Bow Trail this October. While I'm sure that would be great, there's other concerns about the impact on the Bow/Sarcee intersection (which is obviously already in failure).

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

It looks like one lane eastbound is now open on the new bridge between Cranston and Chaparral

So now everything shifts to the new bridge and they start construction work on the westbound bridge?

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

There's constant rumours that the province wants to open the West RR between TCH and Bow Trail this October. While I'm sure that would be great, there's other concerns about the impact on the Bow/Sarcee intersection (which is obviously already in failure).

Yeah, that is already a brutal pinch point.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

There's constant rumours that the province wants to open the West RR between TCH and Bow Trail this October. While I'm sure that would be great, there's other concerns about the impact on the Bow/Sarcee intersection (which is obviously already in failure).

Wouldn't that reduce load on the Bow/Sarcee intersection? People who need to get from SW communities like Cougar Ridge, Wentworth, Aspen Woods, West Springs, etc. to TCH West no longer need to use the Bow-Sarcee Trail intersection. People coming from downtown to get to TCH West are still going to use Sarcee Northbound since driving down Bow is most certainly not a more efficient route.