[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by kyle_olsen

Since the airport under agreement from the city pays for any roads on airport land, and most definitely likes the idea of traffic light free access to the terminal, you get this:
Without the tunnel, Barlow north and Airport Trail West have light free access to the terminal roads (up is north of course, different colours are grade separations).

With the tunnel, to keep the same degree of access, you need a full stack (I didn't draw even a full stack, for simplification, but you end up with alot more bridges if you want to keep traffic lights off the access)

Without the tunnel, all those ramps would just be required at both McKnight and on Country Hills Blvd. Oh wait, land isn't being set aside along Country Hills Blvd for interchanges. Guess how much everything is going to cost then?

All the current community plans have Airport Trail as the expressway, and Country Hills Blvd as the Major Road. That absolutely MUST switch if the tunnel is not built. I think Country Hills Blvd has something like 7 proposed traffic lights in a short distance North of the Airport? It will become gridlock like this city has never seen before if it's left that way and the tunnel is not built. It's almost too late to make those changes, and the changes would likely end up costing the city much more in the end.

I would go as far as to say that without the tunnel, much of the currently undeveloped land around country hills blvd becomes completely undevelopable. The developments that may go in there would be built somewhere else, perhaps outside the ring road in the same area.

Originally Posted by Garth Atkinson - Airport Authority CEO

“I’m not personally aware of any interest in committing public funds to this project.”

It should be mentioned that this quote is a blatent lie. The city has already committed to it's share of the money if the other parties provide their share.