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

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Violator

They fixed the bridge then

The bridges that required less fixing are fixed, and traffic is moving one lane in each direction over the one bridge.

The remaining bridge is supposed to open late this year or early next year, that will allow three lanes of traffic each way.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Not completely tunnel related, but 96th Ave connecting to Deerfoot on the west side is now open.

Awesome, makes my commute to the Airport even quicker... (I think)

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Violator

They fixed the bridge then

I missed this, and presume this is why that link was "opening soon" for about two years? What was wrong with the bridges?

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

I missed this, and presume this is why that link was "opening soon" for about two years? What was wrong with the bridges?

When they were supposed to open last summer, all four bridges failed inspection and the contractor was required to do major fixes. The two bridges that were to handle eastbound traffic required less work to be brought up to proper quality and they are now open (with both directions of traffic flowing over these bridges).

The bridges handling westbound traffic are supposed to be finished late this year or early next year.

Here is an article from February talking about the issues.

[You Need a Thneed]

The bridge was supposed to open last year, but the contractor didn't meet specifications, so the bridges required repair. Three of the 4 bridges are now repaired, but the worst one isn't finished yet, but will be open for the end of the year or early next year.

[Russellinus]

So I've been looking at designs and progress pictures, and I'm curious what they mean when they say the tunnel has been designed to house a future LRT line. To me, the tunnel doesn't look wide enough to add an LRT line. I'm trying to deny in my mind the seemingly obvious fact that a future line would take the place of one of the current traffic lanes in each direction. So after calgarians have gotten used a nice new NE connection that will be 3 lanes in each direction from stoney trail (at some point) to the deerfoot, am I to believe that we will have to adjust to yet one more bottle neck in calgarys road systems once the LRT line is added and we lose a lane in each direction? To me this is a failure in future planning. Can someone "in-the-know" confirm this?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Russellinus

So I've been looking at designs and progress pictures, and I'm curious what they mean when they say the tunnel has been designed to house a future LRT line. To me, the tunnel doesn't look wide enough to add an LRT line. I'm trying to deny in my mind the seemingly obvious fact that a future line would take the place of one of the current traffic lanes in each direction. So after calgarians have gotten used a nice new NE connection that will be 3 lanes in each direction from stoney trail (at some point) to the deerfoot, am I to believe that we will have to adjust to yet one more bottle neck in calgarys road systems once the LRT line is added and we lose a lane in each direction? To me this is a failure in future planning. Can someone "in-the-know" confirm this?

This document shows the cross-section of the tunnel in its different phases: http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation...on-Oct2011.pdf

It will open with 3 lanes in each direction and really wide shoulders. They'll make room for the CTrain by slightly reducing the width of each road lane, and greatly reducing the width of the shoulders.

[You Need a Thneed]

I believe that they are considering a design that would only have a single track through the tunnel, so only one side would have narrow shoulders.

[You Need a Thneed]

Pictures from CH2MHill website:

[Art Vandelay]

Anyone know when 36th Street south of Country Hills is opening?

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay

Anyone know when 36th Street south of Country Hills is opening?

In the "I work for the mayor, ask me anything" thread, Bunk said last week, that it should be by the end of next week - i.e. this week.

I drove by yesterday or the day before, and it looked close to opening, I think just lines needed to be painted, but that doesn't take long.

[Acey]

Country Hills Blvd is still fubar between 36 St and Metis, so it'll be messy for a while yet. They already need an interchange at Metis and CHB and the area is barely built out. Horrifying that the new plan is to never build one. Macleod Trail v2.

[You Need a Thneed]

City of Calgary - October 2013 Update.

[You Need a Thneed]

A little bit of technical reading.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Pictures from CH2MHill website:

seriously, who the hell is building this tunnel, it doesn't even line up.

[HockeyIlliterate]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Pictures from CH2MHill website:

Looks like there will be a very short on-ramp to get onto (I presume) the highway just before the tunnel.

That should make for some fun driving experiences....

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

Looks like there will be a very short on-ramp to get onto (I presume) the highway just before the tunnel.

That should make for some fun driving experiences....

The on ramp should be every bit as long as any other similar intersection. It's about 325 metres between 36th St and the East tunnel entrance.

[Joborule]

Speed likely won't be that fast at the intersection. When it becomes an interchange, the ramp should be suitable for merging at high speed.

[You Need a Thneed]

City's January update.

It's now about 4 months until it opens. Approaching the east entrance from the south is still goin to be a little interesting. 36th Street and especially 80th Ave are still not much more than cow paths.

[Acey]

The more I read about this... the more I realize how much the airport is being morons about this. I would have loved for the city and the airport to get it together before they decided to dump half a billion dollars into this, as we now have a tunnel that's useful from only one side. The money for the interchanges the airport so badly wants? Well I don't want to see them built because interchanges elsewhere in the city a far more important (including McKnight/12 St which the one-sided tunnel will do nothing to fix, anyway... shocker)

Thus, the fact that the tunnel will be more expensive in the future is the ONLY argument to justify its construction... and it's a pretty compelling argument. It's all you need, I suppose.