Winnipeg Roads & Infrastructure

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

It's not really a regent to Marion thing. ESP was supposed to serve Transcona, not get people to Marion. Lag does not serve Transcona. But I get it, there's 2 supposed to be freeways fairly close together. Not the most efficient in Winnipeg when we could use that money and upgrade something else, such as Lag.

I wonder if any developer agreements have them build ESP or if it's purely up to the city. Likely the latter, meaning it won't happen anytime soon. So no need to worry haha.

Come on Bomberjet, just because Lag. is now 52 years old, has never been upgraded and Winnipeg has more than 300K more residents since it was originally built why improve or change it.

[vjose32]

I’m fairly certain the idea is to give people in Transcona a quicker way to get to the Chief. Plessis already has too many lights as is now. You would just start complaining about that.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Come on Bomberjet, just because Lag. is now 52 years old, has never been upgraded and Winnipeg has more than 300K more residents since it was originally built why improve or change it.

haha right? I should remove all the seat belts and safety features from my car so I can fit in with my surrounding's hahah.

[Kronos]

Originally Posted by vjose32

I’m fairly certain the idea is to give people in Transcona a quicker way to get to the Chief. Plessis already has too many lights as is now. You would just start complaining about that.

The same cross streets necessitating lights on Plessis, in addition to train crossings, would also affect ESP....I highly doubt the city would do anything but put at grade crossings on the ESP.
Why spend that much $ on a road that would be no different than Plessis (which would be basically a stone’s throw from Plessis), and as well bring incredibly close to Lag....ah yes, it’s the city of Winnipeg we’re talking about here lol.

[bomberjet]

^That's exactly it. There's really no need for it to be another 4 lane road with traffic lights. It should be limited access at only a couple of those cross streets. That's its.

Like I said before, it likely won't happen for a long time. City should focus on lag, which seems to get zero attention from anyone at the City.

[LilZebra]

Originally Posted by esquire

Main from Portage north to around Higgins was completely redone around 2001 or so, and everything was standardized at that point..

May be out by a couple of years. That stretch was redone in time for the 1999 PanAm Games.

Mini walls were constrcted, so as to prevent the drunks from crossing anywhere they wished.

[bomberjet]

I was doing landscaping work from 2003 to 2004. We planted the trees and such along Main St. So it would be during that time period when the roads were re-done by JC paving from north limit of P&M to City Hall or something.

[Jeff]

Complaining on here worked I guess! The city is replacing all the decorative lighting fixtures on south Main Street to match! I hope this is a new trend city-wide

[asher__jo]

Originally Posted by Kronos

The same cross streets necessitating lights on Plessis, in addition to train crossings, would also affect ESP....I highly doubt the city would do anything but put at grade crossings on the ESP.
Why spend that much $ on a road that would be no different than Plessis (which would be basically a stone’s throw from Plessis), and as well bring incredibly close to Lag....ah yes, it’s the city of Winnipeg we’re talking about here lol.

I second that. Winnipeg has an increasing infrastructure deficit, and building arguably useless arterial roads will only perpetuate the problem. Not many people on here will like my solution, but what's the best way to increase road capacity? Transit

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Complaining on here worked I guess! The city is replacing all the decorative lighting fixtures on south Main Street to match! I hope this is a new trend city-wide

To match what? The Portage and Main-north-of-Portage-for-4-blocks ones?

[BarbadosSlim]

Originally Posted by Kronos

The same cross streets necessitating lights on Plessis, in addition to train crossings, would also affect ESP....I highly doubt the city would do anything but put at grade crossings on the ESP.
Why spend that much $ on a road that would be no different than Plessis (which would be basically a stone’s throw from Plessis), and as well bring incredibly close to Lag....ah yes, it’s the city of Winnipeg we’re talking about here lol.

I agree. Seems nonsensical to push an "expressway" from Chief to a dead-end at Regent. They may as well focus on upgrading Lag for now. Plessis can be upgraded as a part of Chief being extended east.

Every intersection down Lag is a total cluster. It needs a lot of attention. Way too many access points and they are so close together.

[bomberjet]

FFFFFFFFFF sakes. Just noticed that Focus Hyundai is planning to build a dealership on Lagimodiere at Almey. Where the credit union is. What in the hell is that about? That is the dumbest location. We're doomed to have the lights on Lag.

http://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/View...onId=&InitUrl=
Hearing #8.


It's extremely frustrating to me, this kind of shit.

[vjose32]

Originally Posted by BarbadosSlim

I agree. Seems nonsensical to push an "expressway" from Chief to a dead-end at Regent. They may as well focus on upgrading Lag for now. Plessis can be upgraded as a part of Chief being extended east.

Every intersection down Lag is a total cluster. It needs a lot of attention. Way too many access points and they are so close together.

I agree, there’s way too many main roads as is that just dead end and force traffic on other roads, like McPhillips and Keewatin at Notre Dame, Hespeler at Henderson, Leila at Main, Waverly at Grant, and Nairn as well. And guess what they all have traffic issues for the most part. This only makes traffic problems worse and the only way to remedy it would be with a LOT of money and tearing up neighborhoods.

Don’t know what kind of numbskulls planned our roads but they obviously had no idea what they were doing back then.

[bomberjet]

The reason the City has such a disconnected road network is due to the pre-amalgamation cities. Charleswood, St. Boniface, Fort Garry, etc all did their won thing and were competing against each other.

Post-amalgamation, everything was NIMBY'D to death until there was no money for anything. And here we are today, still being NIMBY'D to death, with little money to make improvements.

The beltway and other plans came from amalgamation. And here we are today still with little to show for it.

[Curmudgeon]

Until the late 1940s the developed area of Winnipeg was much smaller and considerably more dense than today, with a fraction of the traffic volumes. The traffic patterns were almost entirely oriented to and from downtown. This was common in most North American cities as the street systems largely developed in conjunction with expansion of the street railways. It's excessive sprawl that's responsible for the current traffic problems.

Winnipeg is quite fortunate that there was no wholesale demolition of its central urban area in order to speed up the flow of cars, and in future years that will become even more apparent as other cities will be faced with the huge price tag of rehabilitating and replacing their postwar infrastructure that is coming to end of its lifespan. Completing the inner beltway is necessary, but the answer is not to repeat the horrible mistakes of the 1950s and 60s. Can you imagine if McPhillips would have been extended as an expressway to connect with Waverley? It would have obliterated large portions of the West End and River Heights.

Invest in transit that people will use, and in areas where there is already an existing ridership, not bus roads that run through the middle of nothing.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Until the late 1940s the developed area of Winnipeg was much smaller and considerably more dense than today, with a fraction of the traffic volumes. The traffic patterns were almost entirely oriented to and from downtown. This was common in most North American cities as the street systems largely developed in conjunction with expansion of the street railways. It's excessive sprawl that's responsible for the current traffic problems.

Winnipeg is quite fortunate that there was no wholesale demolition of its central urban area in order to speed up the flow of cars, and in future years that will become even more apparent as other cities will be faced with the huge price tag of rehabilitating and replacing their postwar infrastructure that is coming to end of its lifespan. Completing the inner beltway is necessary, but the answer is not to repeat the horrible mistakes of the 1950s and 60s. Can you imagine if McPhillips would have been extended as an expressway to connect with Waverley? It would have obliterated large portions of the West End and River Heights.

Invest in transit that people will use, and in areas where there is already an existing ridership, not bus roads that run through the middle of nothing.

And I think that having some good form of transit would help. We keep coming to the inevitable conclusion that transit needs to be massively upgraded if we are to attract new ridership and pull cars off the streets.

I tend to lean somewhat conservative on lots of issues but I am intrigued by the possibility of making a high-quality transit system that promoted density and simplified the route network. If we were able to make such a system free of charge, as are some places in Europe, I believe that we may be able to recuperate a lot of the investment in the reduced wear and tear on roads and taxes generated by the desirability of property near stations. I don't think that it would be totally able to pay for itself, but if we're gonna flush money down the toilet on something, I'd rather it be quality transit than just about anything else. This would be Duff Roblin level stuff if someone could pull it off. I honestly believe this is necessary for Winnipeg to take the next step in its evolution (maybe not the free transit part, but definitely high-quality/high Frequency)

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by vjose32

I agree, there’s way too many main roads as is that just dead end and force traffic on other roads, like McPhillips and Keewatin at Notre Dame, Hespeler at Henderson, Leila at Main, Waverly at Grant, and Nairn as well. And guess what they all have traffic issues for the most part. This only makes traffic problems worse and the only way to remedy it would be with a LOT of money and tearing up neighborhoods.

Don’t know what kind of numbskulls planned our roads but they obviously had no idea what they were doing back then.

I don't know about the other roads, but McPhillips ends at Notre Dame because it was the back road of the Red River farm lots. The lots all had river frontage and were generally 5-10 chains wide and 2 miles deep. If you look on a map, you'll notice that McPhillips generally follows the bends in the river from Notre Dame to north of Selkirk (the city), with the notable exception of Point Douglas, which was surveyed differently.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

FFFFFFFFFF sakes. Just noticed that Focus Hyundai is planning to build a dealership on Lagimodiere at Almey. Where the credit union is. What in the hell is that about? That is the dumbest location. We're doomed to have the lights on Lag.

http://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/View...onId=&InitUrl=
Hearing #8.


It's extremely frustrating to me, this kind of shit.

I believe Biff mentioned this earlier. Isn't it better having the lights service two businesses rather than just a single one?

[bomberjet]

The best option would be to have zero lights serving zero businesses at that location.

Next best thing would be to have those businesses access off Ravelston and close Almey at Lag. But the residents don't want that.

It's such an awkward location. Now permanently stuck unless they buyout and demo Olive garden and/or part of the storage place and connect Ravelston to Reenders. But again the residents will probably protest. So we're hooped.

Right now that intersection isn't too bad as the bank is fairly low volume. But now a car dealership?? Crap. I don't see the City turning that intersection into a right in-right out either..


Larger question being why is Hyundai moving there? They just built the current location on Nairn less than 10 years ago. Moving to a less attractive location makes no sense.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by buzzg

To match what? The Portage and Main-north-of-Portage-for-4-blocks ones?

The pedestrian-oriented decorative lighting from York south to the Main Street Bridge. Not very noticeable when you're driving, but they've been neglected for far too long with the fixtures completely missing or horribly mismatched. Now they're being replaced with heritage-style LED fixtures. Makes for a substantially more appealing gateway into downtown now. It's all in the small details! They look like the fixtures you'd see on those streets in River Heights with the fancy lighting.