Winnipeg Roads & Infrastructure

[Biff]

You can only do that when you have ditches.

[Gm0ney]

Originally Posted by Biff

You can only do that when you have ditches.

Speaking of ditches...does anyone know why their back working in the ditch on the south side of Roblin west of Assiniboine Park? This is the 3rd summer in a row they've been digging around - and I swore they finished all that ditch beside the Tuxedo Golf Course and Assiniboine Forest last year.

[plrh]

Originally Posted by Gm0ney

Speaking of ditches...does anyone know why their back working in the ditch on the south side of Roblin west of Assiniboine Park? This is the 3rd summer in a row they've been digging around - and I swore they finished all that ditch beside the Tuxedo Golf Course and Assiniboine Forest last year.

I know they rebuilt the eastbound lanes last year and the westbound this year. If I remember correctly, any the median work is this year and any additional work is for crossovers, tie-ins, or the Shaftesbury intersection upgrade. Also tying the drains into the sewer sometimes requires reopening holes on last year's phase. Last year was Bituminex, this year is Bayview.

[buzzg]

They're also currently redoing all the ditches on the north side of Corydon need the park/forest.

[Jack1983]

Does anyone know whats the deal with the midtown bridge? The pier immediately south of Assiniboine avenue has been worked on for what seems like the last 2 years. They have exposed all of the rebar. There is never anyone working there; however tarps have gone up over the winter and come down in the summer. Is this a University/College project or something?

[vjose32]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

McPhillips had issues with utilities and such being very shallow. That's why it took forever.

New asphalt roads will never have concrete below them. Placing asphalt on top of concrete is a retrofit situation. I'm not sure of the popularity of this method in other places, but is extremely common and the de facto rehab in Winnipeg. Everything will get a TBO before it is blown up and fully re-constructed. This pushes off the expensive projects for 10-20 years.

There is no reason to be placing a new concrete roadway, then put asphalt on top unless you are doing this for ease of maintenance. Such things are done on the interstates and large volume highways around the world. You can come in and do a mill and fill overnight. Minimizing disruption to busy day time traffic.

Waverley underpass is asphalt for no other reason than cost. Probably was cheaper to do it asphalt. Doesn't mean that's it worse than concrete.

Well haven’t seen that myself, in fact every new road I can think of has just been paved in concrete

[cllew]

Over the last few years the city has moved from doing back lanes in concrete to asphalt due to the cost savings.

[buzzg]

So for some reason the city has been redoing all the sidewalk corners on Main @ Bannatyne and McDermot, and the curb cuts are full 4" higher than the road. They've made tiny ramps out of asphalt. They've also replaced the crosswalk bricks with asphalt for 2 of the lanes. Looks like a mess. Already seen wheelchairs struggle to get off the street and it's not even winter.







--

Also, the city appears to be shrinking the sidewalk substantially in front of Across the Board to add in a few parking spots. So while most places we've been trying to shrink roads and make places more pedestrian friendly, now Main will be 5 lanes here with a narrow sidewalk. There isn't even any businesses with entrances there. And the new angled parking hubs are NEVER near full. What a joke.

[dmacc]

That probably mean they will be laying asphalt on the road and it will build up to the sidewalk corners.

[pacman]

Originally Posted by buzzg

So for some reason the city has been redoing all the sidewalk corners on Main @ Bannatyne and McDermot, and the curb cuts are full 4" higher than the road. They've made tiny ramps out of asphalt. They've also replaced the crosswalk bricks with asphalt for 2 of the lanes. Looks like a mess. Already seen wheelchairs struggle to get off the street and it's not even winter.







--

Also, the city appears to be shrinking the sidewalk substantially in front of Across the Board to add in a few parking spots. So while most places we've been trying to shrink roads and make places more pedestrian friendly, now Main will be 5 lanes here with a narrow sidewalk. There isn't even any businesses with entrances there. And the new angled parking hubs are NEVER near full. What a joke.

The crosswalks are high because they will be overlaying with asphalt all the way from Lombard to Higgins at the end of the project once all the corners are redone (being phased). BTW, the pavers are getting removed on all those crosswalks on Main and filled in with asphalt ahead of the overlay.

The sidewalk in front of Across the Board is not being turned into roadway, they're just redoing it (they're prepping the base right now). Edit: They actually are cutting parking spots into the sidewalk (my bad), but they're not adding a whole through lane, just creating a "bulbout" on each end of the parking by stealing some sidewalk. Still a decently wide sidewalk there when it's done but I can see why you don't like the idea.

[buzzg]

I just can't imagine them laying asphalt right over the entirety of Main. Would end up with 2" curbs everywhere else.

[cllew]

Looking at the contract documents its about 80mm (3 inch) thickness on average. As there is a crown to pavement for drainage the overlay tapers towards the curb

[joshlemer]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Also, the city appears to be shrinking the sidewalk substantially in front of Across the Board to add in a few parking spots. So while most places we've been trying to shrink roads and make places more pedestrian friendly, now Main will be 5 lanes here with a narrow sidewalk. There isn't even any businesses with entrances there. And the new angled parking hubs are NEVER near full. What a joke.

This is just shameful, they're going to ruin the entire sidewalk!

[bomberjet]

See, TBO. Typical Winnipeg. The sidewalk thing is a travesty. Barely looks wide enough for a wheelchair.

And yeah the curbs will be short, wherever they've left the old ones in place.

Dissapointing this is how main st is being treated

[esquire]

^ Wait, they're shrinking that stretch of sidewalk along Main to what appears to be maybe 1m at most? If so, that is absurd.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Wait, they're shrinking that stretch of sidewalk along Main to what appears to be maybe 1m at most? If so, that is absurd.

Yup, it's at most 5 feet, and that's before the signage goes back in. It's absolutely disgusting. There's so much angled parking open on Adelaide, James, McDermot, Bannatyne all the time – just put up green parking wayfinding signage like used to be prevalent downtown.

Please everyone hound the city, mayor, councillors, BIZs on this. It's appalling.

[GreyGarden]

Seeing this kind of nonsense makes me wonder if Winnipeg even has an urban planning department... if so, why are all our planners so stuck in the past, this flys in the face of most modern planning principles. Basics.

[buzzg]

I honestly don't think we do. Just traffic engineers.

It's like the new tiny parking spots installed in the floating bike medians on Princess... are they for all the Vespas that don't exist here or did they forget to install bike racks? Makes no sense.

Or, all the new bike signals mounted so high up that it's hard to even crank your head that high to see it on a road bike. Or the vehicular-traffic sized cycling signage that on Notre Dame/Garry that's too big to even read what it says when it's right in front of you.

[esquire]

OK, I saw the Twitter hubbub now with additional pics. That is so bad it's almost an act of aggression, just a straight up 'fuck you' to the fundamental principles of good planning. What on earth is the rationale for that?

I find it hard to believe that someone thought it would be a good idea to squeeze the sidewalk like that. Like it's some sort of elaborate prank.

[joshlemer]

Had an email correspondence with my councillor, they got back to me that:

Turns out the businesses requested it – the dance studio was adamant about it – it created quite an internal stir on email last night – I expect there will be some media fall out