Ring Road To Nowhere

[Manhattanboy]

Actually I found the answer - you exit Stoney at Fish Creek Blvd interchange and it will take you west to 37 Street. Thx

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

It sounds like you can no longer turn right northbound onto 37th Street from 22X?

Correct, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

Actually I found the answer - you exit Stoney at Fish Creek Blvd interchange and it will take you west to 37 Street. Thx

Yes but 37 St is now a white elephant and you can't get to 22X, so you'll have to take 146 Ave west and use a gravelled 53 St to get to 22X, or detour east into the city and use McKevitt or Macleod.

Originally Posted by Ducay

Of the 4 sections, I love how the larger, most complex pieces are going to be done and open first (crossing wetlands at Weaselhead, numerous bridges, terraforming a steep hill @ COP, giant interchanges there as well)..... and yet the 2 sections that are just crossing fields are the last to open (37th to 22x, Hwy 8 to Old Banff). I know its all planned that way, but logically its the opposite of what you'd expect.

Yeah the whole thing is different because of the Tsuut'ina time constraint. The west leg is really only being split in half because of drama around the relocation of an Enmax power line, otherwise the entire ring would be done in 2022. So there is one more section split into a different timeline than originally planned.

The province was unsure they'd even have money to do the west leg when work started on the southwest.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Would it not have been more sensical to throw more resources at the SW corner there to finish it to 22x and open at the same time, then to start the HWY 1/16th ave portion?

IIRC they used the earth removed in grading the hill near 16th ave for building other parts of the road (berm bridge in Weaslehead), so it made sense to get going there anyways.

[Swift]

Originally Posted by Madman

Being a born and raised southern Calgarian, Westhills has always felt like driving to Golden, so not somewhere we typically ventured to. We decided to go check out the new road yesterday and I was genuinely blown away, not only from a quality standpoint, but from hopping on at Fish Creek Blvd we were at Westhills in like 5 minutes - in was actually quite shocking that it is that close when you can drive directly.

It really is going to be a game changer when the entire thing is done.

Same here. It was actually kinda mindblowing how quickly we could see Signal Hill up ahead.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

IIRC they used the earth removed in grading the hill near 16th ave for building other parts of the road (berm bridge in Weaslehead), so it made sense to get going there anyways.

I don't think so? I may be wrong but I thought the trucks parallel to 101st street were always heading north loaded, not the other way.

[Calgary14]

Looks like google maps has been updated to show the portion that is open now, no traffic data yet though (that I can see)

[keratosis]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Looks like google maps has been updated to show the portion that is open now, no traffic data yet though (that I can see)

It worked pretty good this morning, once I turned off of 22x . Before that it kept trying to get me on deerfoot or MacLeod.

[Acey]

Google Maps is still not plotting the route correctly and maybe requires more travel data (which it gets from pinging Android phones) to estimate times. It's still doing some wonky things with the routing.

Originally Posted by Weitz

Then it goes to 80 Km/h when it veers west and is 4 lanes! Just stupid.

To clarify, this is definitely just temporary as it's still a construction zone. The entire thing west of Sarcee will be 80 until work is done. Not sure if they're keeping it 80 till 2024 when the Highway 8 interchange is done which would be a bummer, but it will be 100 when all is said and done.

[bob-loblaw]

I live in the deep south, and we took it yesterday north from Fish Creek to Sarcee.

I have always hated the intersection at Richard Road and Sarcee, and out of all the intersections in the city, I can't believe the city hasn't built something there yet. I also can't believe they haven't done something at Bow Trail and Sarcee. There's absolutely no way I'd live anywhere there because of that.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by bob-loblaw

I live in the deep south, and we took it yesterday north from Fish Creek to Sarcee.

I have always hated the intersection at Richard Road and Sarcee, and out of all the intersections in the city, I can't believe the city hasn't built something there yet. I also can't believe they haven't done something at Bow Trail and Sarcee. There's absolutely no way I'd live anywhere there because of that.

Yeah I was always kind of surprised that the only work being done at Richard Road is adding another lane each way and tinkering with the light timings.

There was a study to do an interchange there but it didn't make it into the budget. In theory it's still shelved on the backburner to maybe get funded in 2023, although of course now the city is broke, so who knows

[Acey]

Have to wait and see how well it does with the west leg in 2024. If we can not build it, it's better to not build it.

[lazypucker]

Originally Posted by bob-loblaw

I live in the deep south, and we took it yesterday north from Fish Creek to Sarcee.

I have always hated the intersection at Richard Road and Sarcee, and out of all the intersections in the city, I can't believe the city hasn't built something there yet. I also can't believe they haven't done something at Bow Trail and Sarcee. There's absolutely no way I'd live anywhere there because of that.

The Bow Trail / Sarcee intersection is one of the worst for traffic. Sometimes you wait for 3 green arrows and still you can't make a left turn, even though all 4 corners have dual dedicated left-turn lanes. That's how congested it gets. But I suppose it will be forever before the city considers building an interchange.

[Enoch Root]

Bow and Sarcee is ridiculous. It has been completely redone, twice, since I have lived here. And both times, all they did was the exact same thing, only a little larger, resulting in the light sequence to take a little longer.

It is a terrible design, and should have been made into a cloverleaf 15 years ago.

[btimbit]

I believe there was a study done a few years back on a interchange at Bow and Sarcee but it was decided to wait to see what happens with the ring road first. It didn't get nearly as far into the process as the proposed Richard Road interchange

[Acey]

Cloverleafs are trash and nobody builds those anymore. Richmond Rd + Bow Trail interchanges + Sarcee widening is estimated at $250 million. Nope.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Acey

Cloverleafs are trash and nobody builds those anymore. Richmond Rd + Bow Trail interchanges + Sarcee widening is estimated at $250 million. Nope.

As opposed to lights? Where people stop and go in winter traffic, creating ice and accidents?

What is there now is not better than a cloverleaf (or whatever the current version of cloverleaf is that cities do now)

[Acey]

Yep. Just clarifying that the interchange to be built would not and will not be a cloverleaf.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

As opposed to lights? Where people stop and go in winter traffic, creating ice and accidents?

What is there now is not better than a cloverleaf (or whatever the current version of cloverleaf is that cities do now)

Richmond Sarcee might be a good candidate for a divergent diamond. High turning volumes in both directions and I think more limited through traffic.

[GGG]

Thanks Acey for providing updates on these projects. I accidentally ended up on a page from this thread from 7 years ago and you were posting very knowledgeable accurate information on these projects. So thanks for the last 7 years and maybe longer of posting.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Acey

Yep. Just clarifying that the interchange to be built would not and will not be a cloverleaf.

Okay, what would it be?

(btw, I really appreciate all the info you bring to this thread)