Ring Road To Nowhere

[TylerSVT]

They should just round up all the natives, build a camp outside of the city and put them all in there... maybe give them some work to do..... wait.... what?






:P

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I just went on Google Maps and counted 76 houses along 37th street. Are they saying that 6 rows of houses would have to go? That's over 200 metres wide.

Or were they counting the apartment complex right by Glenmore?

I think this is where some of the rest of us get off accusing people of being NIMBYs. We hear of 500 houses getting demolished, and kids being trotted out with signs saying "where will I play?" All designed to get people mad at the process.

Meanwhile we may be talking about under 100 houses; and by the time the project is done those kids will be more concerned about being able to afford a house that is close enough to commute home before their own kids have to go to bed.

I'm also a little jadded that in my own Copperfield I had to deal with our own NIMBYs for the SE leg; and said people didn't look at the plans before they bought their houses.

I think the problem with just buying the houses directly adjacent to 37th St is that it doesn't create any room to make a corner onto Glenmore @ 37th. You have to cut into a community somewhere to get the radius required, even if you have a slower speed corner (unless you want a 30km/hr corner perhaps).

Take a look at the radius that the NE and SE stoney Trail are built with when they turn 90 degrees, and try to paste (in your mind) a road of that radius onto the intersection of glenmore/37th without having any part of the road in the reserve land. That would take up a huge chunk of houses somewhere.

I wasn't at the open houses, so I don't know which houses the province has in mind, exactly


Glenmore 37th from google maps.

NE Stoney Trail at the same zoom in google maps.

[mykalberta]

There are also houses in Woodbine Cedarbrae and Oakridge which would need to be demolished as well, that might be where they are getting their 500 total from.

Here are the 5 plans in case anyone wants to look at them. 4 is the only one that doesnt include widening the Glenmore causeway and is the only one that traverses the Weaselhead. There is a definate sharper curve than the other 90 degree curves on Stoney from the looks of it. Without a more detailed picture its impossible to know the exact number of houses affected.

http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/4043.htm
http://www.transportation.alberta.ca...workshop_1.pdf

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

They should just round up all the natives, build a camp outside of the city and put them all in there... maybe give them some work to do..... wait.... what?






:P

They can call the town de Winton....

[TylerSVT]

Originally Posted by shermanator

They can call the town de Winton....

I c wat u did thur!


On another note it would be nice to actually get a ring road. Driving around Edmonton was a joy that i wish Calgary had.


I mean... Literally AROUND it.

[CrusaderPi]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

I c wat u did thur!


On another note it would be nice to actually get a ring road. Driving around Edmonton was a joy that i wish Calgary had.


I mean... Literally AROUND it.

By "AROUND IT" do you mean, "AROUND IT, except for the everything north of highway 16 and the southwestern part that is littered with lights"?

[TylerSVT]

Originally Posted by CrusaderPi

By "AROUND IT" do you mean, "AROUND IT, except for the everything north of highway 16 and the southwestern part that is littered with lights"?

True, but it sucked driving around knowing Edmonton had a ring road and Calgary was far behind.... the mulletheads actually beat us to something.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Is it just me or does route 4 seem to be head and shoulders above the other options?


And when do they make the choice?

[browna]

Originally Posted by Handsome B. Wonderful

It's a less than stellar neighbourhood ....
I invite every Lakeview resident to spend a week driving on 14th street SW and Glenmore during rush hour, and we'll see if they still think a ring road is unnecessary.

Which "stellar" neighbourhood do you live in?

Lakeview resident here, and yeah, I grew up futher south and went to University so drove everyday. Sure, there's a need for a ring road. I see it everyday living here when everyone who's impatient and not a Lakeview resident decides to pull into Lakeview and pull illegal u turns to line up going north on Crowchild to get onto Glenmore.

The province and city needed to put its foot down long before that casino opened its smoky doors. The plans for Glenmore to be widened have been in place for 6 years, as two weeks after we moved here I went to a town hall and saw the plans (as that widening would be taking place be a few hundred feet from our place)...the city planner said they weren't going to do it until the natives put the ring road through.

The natives still think the government is again trading infected HBC blankets for buffalo meat, and that's the only reason the deal didn't go through, which would've setup the Band, and families for life (assuming the money wasn't blown). But because they didn't trust the land swap, they went against the Band leader.

Cut off the casino from 37th street for 6 months to do "sewer upgrades" in the area, and see how long it takes for them to come running back to the table. Plus, even if this is built on 37th, no way your going to have a turnoff into a casino off a 90km road...that would need a seperate road off the 37th st interchange that would have to be built, and again, I don't think the city or province needs to pay for creating easier access...so the users of that casino would have to go to Anderson and drive the dusty road.

As for Ken, probably about 120 homes (so 2 deep) would be affected if they went 4 lanes, maybe more if they go 6 lanes wide. 37th is a wide 2 way street, but only one lane each way. They can't go more then 10 feet further West, so all construction would be east. Plus, all those homes on the east side of 37th are raised (great view of the mountains) from the street and even the sidewalk, so that whole strip, and the rows behind it, would have to be levelled to make level ground for an expressway. Add in the construction traffic and rights of way to do the construction, and the cul de sacs that back onto the affected portion, and its easily 120+ homes that would go.

Where 500 came from, I don't know...if it went 8 lanes wide with a median, maybe closer to 3 rows of homes (so 300 homes (and the apartments) could be affected, because again, all the construction is east of the current 37th St.

[TylerSVT]

Originally Posted by browna

Cut off the casino from 37th street for 6 months to do "sewer upgrades" in the area, and see how long it takes for them to come running back to the table. Plus, even if this is built on 37th, no way your going to have a turnoff into a casino off a 90km road...that would need a seperate road off the 37th st interchange that would have to be built, and again, I don't think the city or province needs to pay for creating easier access...so the users of that casino would have to go to Anderson and drive the dusty road.

Im still surprised this hasn't happened yet. Calgary and Alberta are pretty conservative in general, and i bet 75% of the city would agree that cutting them off for a couple months might make them change their mind... I would be down for it... i wanted that to happen a couple months ago.

[Mad Mel]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

They should just round up all the natives, build a camp outside of the city and put them all in there...

So the solution is to fix the problem by doing the same thing that caused the problem?

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Mad Mel

So the solution is to fix the problem by doing the same thing that caused the problem?

Hair of the dog!

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

True, but it sucked driving around knowing Edmonton had a ring road and Calgary was far behind.... the mulletheads actually beat us to something.

Edmonton's third quadrant of their ring road is under construction.

Calgary's third quadrant of our ring road is under construction.

How are we so far behind? By the way, the province is doing all of the work.

The reason why Calgary's third quadrant is opening two years later than Edmonton's is because Calgary got a bunch of work on Deerfoot Trail including the extension south to meet up with HWY 2, at the same time that Edmonton's first quadrant was being built.

So far, Edmonton has

SW ring road (minus some important interchanges that are now finally being built/started this year)
SE ring road
NW ring road is under construction.

in the same timeframe, Calgary has got:

Deerfoot extension
4 new interchanges on Deerfoot South
NW Ring road (and all interchanges but one, that one is planned to be complete in two years)
NE Ring Road.
SE Ring Road is under construction.

The total length of road will definitely be longer for Calgary in the end.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

True, but it sucked driving around knowing Edmonton had a ring road and Calgary was far behind.... the mulletheads actually beat us to something.

Not really. The north half (well, 1/3) of Anthony Henday Drive is not complete, and the south half of Stoney Trail is not complete. Edmonton's ring road will certainly be finished sooner - most of it will be open by this fall - but in contrast, Deerfoot Trail is completely free flow, while Yellowhead Trail is still a mess with many traffic lights.

Your "woe is us, Edmonton finished something first" commentary is pretty sad, actually. The province committed to a completely free-flow corridor from the Montana border to the British Columbia border near Pouce Coupe as part of the CANAMEX transportation system. For each major city, that meant a different priority - Deerfoot in Calgary, and a good portion of the ring road in Edmonton. With the highway 43 bypass currently under construction around Grande Prairie, that stupid little traffic light in Claresholm is just about the only thing on the entire line that will stop traffic.

[TylerSVT]

Deerfoot is still broken.

The bottle necks need to be addressed but they are way to complex right now to even look at.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

Deerfoot is still broken.

The bottle necks need to be addressed but they are way to complex right now to even look at.

No one ever claimed the recent upgrades would solve all the issues Deerfoot has. There's no way they will even bother making costly upgrades to fix them all, with the SE Ring Road under construction right now.

Some of the biggest complaints about Deerfoot still exist, but in the last 10 years many of them have also been fixed:
- Removed traffic lights at Douglasdale, Barlow, 130th Avenue, McKenzie Town. (also immediately upgraded Deerfoot to ultimate configuration from Barlow to 22X)
- Extended Deerfoot so you didn't have to take 22X to head South.
- Widened Deerfoot at Beddington/64th Avenue.
- Fixed the awful SB merge at Peigan/Barlow.

The current bad spots at Glenmore/Anderson/17th Avenue would look minor today in comparison to what was fixed. Deerfoot is a much smoother drive today than even a few years ago.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Deerfoot is a much smoother drive today than even a few years ago.

Plus, once the full SE Ring Road is complete, a significant percentage of the traffic that currently uses Deerfoot to go through Calgary will be able to use the Ring Road to bypass Calgary, which should alleviate some of the congestion on Deerfoot. (Hopefully)

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by getbak

Plus, once the full SE Ring Road is complete, a significant percentage of the traffic that currently uses Deerfoot to go through Calgary will be able to use the Ring Road to bypass Calgary, which should alleviate some of the congestion on Deerfoot. (Hopefully)

The reduced heavy truck traffic on Deerfoot alone will make a significant difference.

[V]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Not really. The north half (well, 1/3) of Anthony Henday Drive is not complete, and the south half of Stoney Trail is not complete. Edmonton's ring road will certainly be finished sooner - most of it will be open by this fall - but in contrast, Deerfoot Trail is completely free flow, while Yellowhead Trail is still a mess with many traffic lights.

YHT isn't exactly comparitive to the Deerfoot. That would probably be the Whitemud which is just as screwed up as the Deerfoot in some areas, but doesn't have a traffic signal on it that I can remember.

I really wonder when the Henday will be complete here. There's still a significant problem with crossing the river on the NE corner. I'm pretty sure they don't have that one figured out yet. It's a much easier problem to solve than the SW Stoney Trail, so you're most likely right, the Henday should be complete first.

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

True, but it sucked driving around knowing Edmonton had a ring road and Calgary was far behind.... the mulletheads actually beat us to something.

Winnipeg had a ring road well before any of the Alberta ones were built.