@DallasFlexhaug Our sources say the SE Ring Road will open at 10:45 am Friday!!! #yyc
There's like 20 sets of barriers to move and cones and signs to uncover, etc... so it's not going to be an on-off switch at 10:45. Don't plan any travel assuming it'll be open.
Flexhaug just tweeted that the media event starts at 10:45. Will not be open at that time. They'll still be doing snow removal till "sometime" in the early afternoon when it will be opened, before the evening rush.
My general thinking is that 52 St will have massively reduced volume under every circumstance. Nothing but good news there.
As for Deerfoot, I'm predicting noticeably less truck traffic, but a disappointing lack of perception of decreased overall volume because the route is already so far over-capacity. The huge advantage of Stoney in regards to Deerfoot will be its viability as an alternate route in the event of a crash. If I'm in Auburn Bay and there's a crash on the Calf Robe, it'll be smooth sailing on Stoney up till the point that you need to cut across, but none of the 'cut across' routes are particularly good. Ask You Need a Thneed how long it'll take to get across from Stoney to Deerfoot on Peigan if thousands of people were using it to bypass a Calf Robe crash. Bad news. 17 Ave? Even worse news. 16 Ave? Also bad news, and you still have to deal with at least a bit of Deerfoot in all those cases.
Thankfully, anybody not trying to get downtown will be a much bigger beneficiary as the deficiencies in Calgary's east-west routes become less of a factor. For me, to get from the Evanston area to Lethbridge on a Friday afternoon leaving around 4 pm... I'm going to save 40+ minutes.
Again, just my predictions from having followed this project much too closely. Also, I reckon it will take months for the levels to kind of stabilize as people figure out whether or not they save any time by taking Stoney, so we're not going to be able to judge it based on tomorrow's afternoon commute with the road open.
^ I'm not looking forward to trying Peigan on Monday.
It's going to be very interesting as people decide to try out Stoney to get from the Deep South, and then try to find their way back towards downtown. All of the routes from Stoney can't handle much more traffic. None of them lead directly into downtown, either, so most will have to use a portion of deerfoot anyway.
It will probably take a few weeks for traffic to balance itself out again. Traffic patterns will be significantly changed.
I wouldn't recommend trying to cut back to Deerfoot on Peigan, at least until the 52nd st intersection is complete, which is looking more and more like next year at this point, unless they get a warmer stretch. However, having less traffic on 52nd may mean that the light can be retimed, which would be a big benefit.
I'm just looking forward to saving at least 10 minutes each way when I travel to okotoks, or to McKenzie Towne.
A 16 Ave/19 St interchange will have an even greater benefit now, here's to hoping it moves slightly up their list as of tomorrow, or it ought to, anyway...
Is there any timeline for the 130th overpass? A few years?
No timeline at all. Of the places on Stoney where only grading was done but no interchange was built, 14 St NW is going to need an interchange first, by far. The province could probably make a case for building that bridge within the next 3 years.
7 weeks late on a project of this scope is not to bad.
Good work. Big shortcut to the airport
Unfortunately, not a huge shortcut to the Airport yet. Faster than Deerffot during rush hour? perhaps. But Country Hills Blvd is subject to backing up a bit during rush hour too.
Looked at a few news article comments. Some people complaining that full cloverleafs weren't built.
One guy complaining about how Higgins split the vote so that Spenshi could be mayor over McIver.
That's hilarious! What in the world does Nenshi have to do with the ring road? (Or any mayor really?). And of course McIver was just elected in 2012 so he has even less to do with this, realistically.
No timeline at all. Of the places on Stoney where only grading was done but no interchange was built, 14 St NW is going to need an interchange first, by far. The province could probably make a case for building that bridge within the next 3 years.
Wouldn't a 14st nw interchange just service Panorama? Doesn't seem like a huge necessity to me.. ?
That's hilarious! What in the world does Nenshi have to do with the ring road? (Or any mayor really?). And of course McIver was just elected in 2012 so he has even less to do with this, realistically.
I'm sorry, but your facts and rational thinking aren't welcome in the comments section.
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