Ring Road To Nowhere

[JBR]

Apple maps updated when I drove through shortly after noon today.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

9 minutes from signal hill junction to tuscany.

Beautiful.

[Mazrim]

It's been a great trip down memory lane for me today. I worked on the ring road in many capacities from 2006 to 2022. I started out doing drafting, then leading drawing packages, taking on design tasks, and eventually reviewing other people's designs - all on ring road work.

It's hard to believe it's almost actually finished (once that South Bow bridge project is done I'll consider it done). The ring road represents some of the toughest and some of the most rewarding work in my career. I have a fairly negative feeling towards P3 projects thanks to working on so many of them, both from the owners side and the consultant/contractor side. That being said, it's been amazing to see it all come together and be able to say I was a part of so many pieces of it. I wouldn't be where I am today without the good and bad.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

It's been a great trip down memory lane for me today. I worked on the ring road in many capacities from 2006 to 2022. I started out doing drafting, then leading drawing packages, taking on design tasks, and eventually reviewing other people's designs - all on ring road work.

It's hard to believe it's almost actually finished (once that South Bow bridge project is done I'll consider it done). The ring road represents some of the toughest and some of the most rewarding work in my career. I have a fairly negative feeling towards P3 projects thanks to working on so many of them, both from the owners side and the consultant/contractor side. That being said, it's been amazing to see it all come together and be able to say I was a part of so many pieces of it. I wouldn't be where I am today without the good and bad.

Congrats did you work long enough and on both sides that you could find mistakes in what you did previously. And then when working to fix them could be like some idiot who used to work there screwed up.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

It's been a great trip down memory lane for me today. I worked on the ring road in many capacities from 2006 to 2022. I started out doing drafting, then leading drawing packages, taking on design tasks, and eventually reviewing other people's designs - all on ring road work.

It's hard to believe it's almost actually finished (once that South Bow bridge project is done I'll consider it done). The ring road represents some of the toughest and some of the most rewarding work in my career. I have a fairly negative feeling towards P3 projects thanks to working on so many of them, both from the owners side and the consultant/contractor side. That being said, it's been amazing to see it all come together and be able to say I was a part of so many pieces of it. I wouldn't be where I am today without the good and bad.

That's really cool, congrats! Do you have any comment on north bound Stoney where it goes from 3 lanes to 2 between peigan and 17th ave and creates a standstill every rush hour?

Was there a reason this had to happen? I'd imagine they didn't just decide to go to two for no reason. But on the other hand it's weird as the whole ring road appears to have had what they needed to be 3 lanes, plus exits.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by jayswin

That's really cool, congrats! Do you have any comment on north bound Stoney where it goes from 3 lanes to 2 between peigan and 17th ave and creates a standstill every rush hour?



Was there a reason this had to happen? I'd imagine they didn't just decide to go to two for no reason. But on the other hand it's weird as the whole ring road appears to have had what they needed to be 3 lanes, plus exits.

Those were different projects with different scopes of work.

[timun]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I have a fairly negative feeling towards P3 projects

Preach, brotha, preach! They are the worst.

Design-bid-build! Design-bid-build! Design-bid-build!

[red sky]

West ring road is great but I see potential issues when it gets icy with the grade and some of the exit ramps around bow trail. Problem for another day. So nice to have access back to the west side. Big day!

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Also noticed it goes down to 2 lanes where it curves off the hwy 8 interchange and towards 17th. Goes from 4 lanes to 2 lanes relatively quickly as the right two end in quick succession. If every one flocks from sarcee north to the west leg, could we potentially see slow downs at that section? Guess we'll have to see.

It was a little awkward, but fine once it turns north and opens up to several lanes.

[sleepingmoose]

Originally Posted by Acey

I did this 10 years ago, timed it perfectly and was the first car to ever go over the WB-SB flyover at Stoney/Deerfoot SE. That was cool.

Until all your tires went flat driving over the bad expansion joint.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

Also noticed it goes down to 2 lanes where it curves off the hwy 8 interchange and towards 17th. Goes from 4 lanes to 2 lanes relatively quickly as the right two end in quick succession. If every one flocks from sarcee north to the west leg, could we potentially see slow downs at that section? Guess we'll have to see.

It was a little awkward, but fine once it turns north and opens up to several lanes.

Is that because the Bragg Creek exit takes it down to 3 and the 17th exit takes it down to 2?

[Calgary14]

Looks like google maps isn't updated yet (?)

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Acey

I did this 10 years ago, timed it perfectly and was the first car to ever go over the WB-SB flyover at Stoney/Deerfoot SE. That was cool.

I actually pulled this off for when they opened up SB Stoney from Fish Creek BV two years ago.

[Jiggy_12]

Commute time down to 30 mins from about 40 typically. Not only the time saved, but the sanity saved is amazing.

[Nancy]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Looks like google maps isn't updated yet (?)

It took over a week last time. Use Apple Maps for now.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by GGG

Congrats did you work long enough and on both sides that you could find mistakes in what you did previously. And then when working to fix them could be like some idiot who used to work there screwed up.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing. Especially when there was upgrades to work I remember doing previously and you're looking at the old drawings. The setup for all the P3 projects is that there was a consultant on the owner's side reviewing everything that came through from the contractor side. That made it harder for obvious mistakes to make it through. The mad dash schedule of P3 projects has some obvious downsides though.

I think the most obvious changes through the years was that Schedule 18 (the design guidelines) was updated with each new leg of the ring road to correct issues with the previous leg. I wouldn't say any of those things are negligence or a danger to the public, but more just closing loopholes that allowed the P3 contractor to do lower quality work than expected.

Originally Posted by jayswin

That's really cool, congrats! Do you have any comment on north bound Stoney where it goes from 3 lanes to 2 between peigan and 17th ave and creates a standstill every rush hour?

Was there a reason this had to happen? I'd imagine they didn't just decide to go to two for no reason. But on the other hand it's weird as the whole ring road appears to have had what they needed to be 3 lanes, plus exits.

When NE Stoney was being designed, there wasn't any guaranteed plans at the time that SE Stoney was going ahead right away. The traffic modeling showed that 2 lanes in each direction was fine until the SE portion opened. They built the NE leg with future widening ready to go, and just needed to scrape off the topsoil and pave the extra lane once the SE opened. I assume that government budgeting and having to go through the concessionaire that owns and operates NE Stoney delayed the adding of the lane. No idea why it took until 2021 for them to finally fix that bottleneck, but that's fairly consistent with the government delaying adding lanes on Stoney and Henday when traffic clearly justified it.

[Barnes]

Door to door Mahogany to Webber Athletic Park, 32 mins. Amazing. Will save me 80 mins of driving a week.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Barnes

Door to door Mahogany to Webber Athletic Park, 32 mins. Amazing. Will save me 80 mins of driving a week.

I think sometimes people fail to realize how these seemingly minute time savings can add up...

80 minutes a week, say the season is 20 weeks a year... that's a full week of your life.

Now add this up over multiple seasons... it's incredible.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by you&me

I think sometimes people fail to realize how these seemingly minute time savings can add up...



80 minutes a week, say the season is 20 weeks a year... that's a full week of your life.



Now add this up over multiple seasons... it's incredible.

It's life changing.

I moved to Renfrew from Silverado changing my one way commute from 35 to 7 minutes. Spending zero minutes a day in traffic greatly improved my mood and general happiness.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by you&me

I think sometimes people fail to realize how these seemingly minute time savings can add up...

80 minutes a week, say the season is 20 weeks a year... that's a full week of your life.

Now add this up over multiple seasons... it's incredible.

But, but, but induced demand! /s

It's annoying how in almost any discussion of road projects, opponents will cite induced demand as the reason not to do it; how people being able to make quicker trips, trips at more ideal time of day, more trips overall and expensive public infrastructure being well-used are somehow bad things.