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

[FFR]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

People who are against the tunnel only need to drive the Deerfoot this morning to realize why we need it, not just for the commute to the airport. As the city grows even more, it's only going to get worse. Having alternate routes available is always a good thing.

Ugh. This morning was terrible. Bigger back up of people trying to get off Country Hills Blvd onto Deerfoot Trail. Even bigger back-up of people trying to get off Deerfoot Trail onto McKnight. Absolutely brutal. I'm hoping today was just a blip and things will get better tomorrow. Otherwise - my commute time has almost doubled.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Kinda funny how it takes 3 full years to build 4kms of asphalt. I kinda get why it takes that long, but just a bit quirky considering we can build a ring road within the same timeframe which takes up ~20kms or more each leg.

I wish I could find the project PDF for you, the scope of building a runway and taxiways and the specs and tolerances are quite a bit higher than your average freeway.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by FFR

Ugh. This morning was terrible. Bigger back up of people trying to get off Country Hills Blvd onto Deerfoot Trail. Even bigger back-up of people trying to get off Deerfoot Trail onto McKnight. Absolutely brutal. I'm hoping today was just a blip and things will get better tomorrow. Otherwise - my commute time has almost doubled.

What time were you on the road? We were merging off CHB onto Deerfoot and only noticed a slight delay as some turd decided he/she needed to almost come to a complete stop before merging into oncoming traffic. Other than that, though, it was pretty smooth sailing.

[FFR]

Originally Posted by fredr123

What time were you on the road? We were merging off CHB onto Deerfoot and only noticed a slight delay as some turd decided he/she needed to almost come to a complete stop before merging into oncoming traffic. Other than that, though, it was pretty smooth sailing.

I left home in Coventry Hills about 7:30. The line up was from Harvest Hills all the way to Deerfoot. It moved, but very, very slowly. Maybe that's normal - I usually cruised up CHB in the left lane and only came over to go onto Deerfoot if there was a big enough gap in the line - otherwise I went to Barlow. Just seemed busier to me...

[getbak]

Originally Posted by FFR

I left home in Coventry Hills about 7:30. The line up was from Harvest Hills all the way to Deerfoot. It moved, but very, very slowly. Maybe that's normal - I usually cruised up CHB in the left lane and only came over to go onto Deerfoot if there was a big enough gap in the line - otherwise I went to Barlow. Just seemed busier to me...

I'm confused. How would closing Barlow between the airport and McKnight have caused a backup in Country Hills?

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I wish I could find the project PDF for you, the scope of building a runway and taxiways and the specs and tolerances are quite a bit higher than your average freeway.

One of the ones on here?

It's not just a runway, there's a whole stormwater system to build, electrical systems to install, a MASSIVE amount of earth to move, the runway surface and substructure are probably twice as thick as a normal road.

The whole thing is going to be poured concrete, not asphalt.

And like Bigtime said, tolerances are much tighter.

Also, there are two underpasses for traffic to go under taxiways (one for the public, and one airside) - plus now likely the Airport Trail tunnel on top of that.

[FFR]

Originally Posted by getbak

I'm confused. How would closing Barlow between the airport and McKnight have caused a backup in Country Hills?

Because a lot of people (myself included) used to take Barlow Trail south instead of Deerfoot south. Now all of those people need to line up on Country Hills Blvd to get onto southbound Deerfoot (or drive all the way to 36st/metis trail).

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by getbak

I'm confused. How would closing Barlow between the airport and McKnight have caused a backup in Country Hills?

Additional traffic on Deerfoot could cause traffic entering Deerfoot from CHB to take longer. Also, there will be a higher percentage of people turning off of CHB onto Deerfoot instead of proceeding straight to Barlow.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I wish I could find the project PDF for you, the scope of building a runway and taxiways and the specs and tolerances are quite a bit higher than your average freeway.

I believe I know the one your talking about. I get the nature of why it takes much more work to build the runway, just find it a bit humorous since you would imagine at an uneducated first look that it should be really simple.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

One of the ones on here?

It's not just a runway, there's a whole stormwater system to build, electrical systems to install, a MASSIVE amount of earth to move, the runway surface and substructure are probably twice as thick as a normal road.

The whole thing is going to be poured concrete, not asphalt.

(...)

Why is that, I wonder?

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

Why is that, I wonder?

Because it saves money in the long term. Less Maintenance, more durable.

[Ryan Coke]

More temperature resistant too, I believe (jet blast is hot).

[BlackArcher101]

Imagine an asphalt runway with frost heaving and cracking. Not something you want to maintain or have to shut down for a period of time to do so. Concrete also handles the heavy loads a lot better than ashpalt does, and this runway is going to be rated for more than the original I imagine. Spreads the force out over a greater area. Also doesn't have to be as thick as the comparable asphalt.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

More temperature resistant too, I believe (jet blast is hot).

That's a huge one. The thermal fracturing of concrete is much less frequent and requires larger extremes than asphalt. With such a large area to contract and expand as an airport runway, there is a pretty good chance of damage after Winter...and runways aren't really something you want to shut down.

[You Need a Thneed]

I'm looking at the Airport Trail Underpass drawings, the roadway surface is as much as 13 metres below the estimated level of bedrock. You should get a nice view of the top of the runway in the future driving west on Airport Trail - just east of 36th Street. You will be above the level of the runway.

Substantial completion of the tunnel is supposed to be end of October 2013. The excavation is supposed to be done at the end of September this year.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Yipes imagine the wheelpath ruts that would be on the runway if they went with asphalt! Concrete is much superior for taking the large vertical loads.

[You Need a Thneed]

looking at the drawings and specs some more, excavation as much as 19 metres below the existing ground. As much as about 14 metres into bedrock. The whole tunnel structure appears to be inside what is right now bedrock.

Simple, but massive, structure. A quick rough calculation show about 60,000 cubic metres of concrete. That's about 4 times as much as the raft slab for the Bow tower, or enough to make a block 100m x 100m x 6 metres high.

[FlameOn]

Looks like the airport authority is insisting on a new interchange for airport trail bundled in with the tunnel agreement. If the city can't get the negotiations for this resolved by Friday, deal may fall through.

Lets hope we don't see the deal fall through. Hopefully airport authority will budge
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/De...328/story.html

[mykalberta]

If the airport doesnt back down on the 3 interchange(s) demand then i dont see this going through. It was a tough enough sell when the issue was a political one after the election, now after some months council wouldnt approve it.

If they wanted any interchange upgraded you would think its the dodgy one on Deerfoot.

[Frequitude]

Can anyone bring me up to speed. How the hell does the airport authority have the ability to make all these demands?