Ring Road To Nowhere

[Acey]

Weather definitely not cooperating from tomorrow thru Monday. Given how much stuff they've screwed up, it's interesting that he thinks deficiencies in the audit can be fixed "promptly". If his guess is the 15th mine is the following Friday, the 22nd.

[Joborule]

Well, we know who's not going to be working on the SW Stoney project.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

That road is a joke.

I hope this construction company doesn't get the SW road contract.

Who is doing this?

[Mazrim]

I had to chuckle at this part of the press release:

Chinook Infrastructures and its sub-contractors have worked diligently through many challenging circumstances including measures to safely maintain east-west traffic on Highway 22X while building complex interchanges over live traffic.

I'm impressed that they want to use that as an excuse, as it was clear from the start that this would be a difficult section to work in. They clearly underestimated it though.

And for blaming the weather...well, pretty much anyone that started a construction job in the spring this year suffered massive delays. Many were still able to finish in a reasonable time though. It's almost like they waited to do everything this year....

[stampsx2]

Driving the se leg it doesn't look like very much has been going on since the temperature dropped. Work on the 22x macleod bridge looks to have come to a complete stop as well. I'm guessing work will resume once it gets warm out.

[Acey]

For Macleod/22X maybe, but for the SE they're paying everyday it's not open until December 1 when a winter relief clause sets in, so the only way they completely bail is if whatever comes out in the audit can't be satisfactorily fixed by December 1st. That's the way I'm interpreting things.

[You Need a Thneed]

They have been doing odds and ends along the n/s portion too. They have been busy placing topsoil around Peigan trail, and likely elsewhere too. Also, I think the concrete barrier might finally be finished on Peigan.

I don't think the penalty stops Dec 1, it just gets less over the winter. I'll have to go back to that post with the clause.

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Driving the se leg it doesn't look like very much has been going on since the temperature dropped. Work on the 22x macleod bridge looks to have come to a complete stop as well. I'm guessing work will resume once it gets warm out.

Whoever is doing that bandaid fix at Macleod and 22x needs a serious wake up call - it was a royal cluster there today. One lane closed, but no one monitoring so people were driving everywhere, sat e/b waiting while they blocked the entire road for 10 minutes. They're scrambling to finish something that probably should have been done a month ago, and they're not close.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

Whoever is doing that bandaid fix at Macleod and 22x needs a serious wake up call - it was a royal cluster there today. One lane closed, but no one monitoring so people were driving everywhere, sat e/b waiting while they blocked the entire road for 10 minutes. They're scrambling to finish something that probably should have been done a month ago, and they're not close.

It was suppose to be open oct 1st.

[ken0042]

No, the SE leg of Stoney Trail was due to open on October 1st. The temporary fix over MacLeod was never given a firm timeline. The only times mentioned were "shortly after the SE leg opens" or "Fall 2013."

[1stLand]

I can't understand why the 22x bridge over Macleod was never built to accommodate 3 lanes in the first place.

Can't road planners anticipate growth?

[ken0042]

How old is that bridge though? I'd guess somewhere around 40 years old. If that bridge cost $5 million to build, could you justify spending $7M at the time to build it to account for a city expansion that had just barely reached Anderson yet?

Now of course today we are spending more to account for future needs. The airport tunnel is a classic example though. Building it today cost 1/3 what it would cost to build when we need it 20 years from now. However even with it being obvious that it would be considerably harder to build later on, there was still strong opposition. Then take a bridge that was in the middle of nowhere, and explain that you want to make it wider.

Keeping in mind that 22X was still a 2 lane road up until 10 years ago.

I agree that it would be better if it was build wider at the time. But I can understand why they didn't.

[J epworth]

Originally Posted by ken0042

How old is that bridge though? I'd guess somewhere around 40 years old. If that bridge cost $5 million to build, could you justify spending $7M at the time to build it to account for a city expansion that had just barely reached Anderson yet?

Now of course today we are spending more to account for future needs. The airport tunnel is a classic example though. Building it today cost 1/3 what it would cost to build when we need it 20 years from now. However even with it being obvious that it would be considerably harder to build later on, there was still strong opposition. Then take a bridge that was in the middle of nowhere, and explain that you want to make it wider.

Keeping in mind that 22X was still a 2 lane road up until 10 years ago.

I agree that it would be better if it was build wider at the time. But I can understand why they didn't.

I swear there was a light at 22x and Macleod when I was a kid, At least probably in 1998 there was still a light at 22x. So I don't think it's a new overpass at all. I could be completely wrong however. My grandad lives out by Spruce Meadows so we would take 22x all the time, and I swear I remember the construction of an overpass just south of Shawnessy.

[ken0042]

I could be wrong as well. Just going by my own recollection from 20 years ago of there being an old bridge there.


Edit- just looked through my maps. Oldest map I have is 1995; and it shows the bridge being there at that point.

[J epworth]

I tried searching for old aerial photos of that area and came up with nothing. But I did find a cool one of the Deerfoot and 22x intersection back in 1988... to think how easy it would have been to make a ring road to nowhere back then:



For people trying to get their bearings, bottom left is Bow River and where Cranston currently is, and the community being developed in the middle left of the picture is McKenzie Lake.

[Old Yeller]

Haha, that picture is ridiculous. 25 years/250,000 people later...

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller

Haha, that picture is ridiculous. 25 years/250,000 people later...

Closer to half a million more people. The population was a little over 650,000 back then, and now it's just shy of 1.2 million.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by ken0042

No, the SE leg of Stoney Trail was due to open on October 1st. The temporary fix over MacLeod was never given a firm timeline. The only times mentioned were "shortly after the SE leg opens" or "Fall 2013."

Based on metronews:

The roughly two-kilometre stretch of road under construction will remain open during improvements and is expected to be complete by October.

http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/762...macleod-trail/

I wouldn't be surprised if they changed the timeline when they figured out they couldn't finish on time.

[Mazrim]

According to the Alberta 511 twitter account, the stretch from 17th Avenue to 22X is now open. Mistake or for real?

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

According to the Alberta 511 twitter account, the stretch from 17th Avenue to 22X is now open. Mistake or for real?

I'm trying to verify.

No other source is saying it, and the timing of it would be baffling given the "best case" November 15 estimate by the contractor, so I'm gonna say no.