Another view of the new Donald Bridge and rail overhead on Hwy 1 taken on November 11, 2012:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8345/8...b4c33f77_c.jpg

Source: Flickr/TranBC

Looks nice! Thanks for posting.

:previous:Then you will hate many highways in Europe and Japan that are built n the same "small scale" fashion through similar terrain areas.

I have a feeling I know who you are, the same good old troll that will always knock anything BC does highway wise, welcome back!

Define similar terrain

Why do people always use the terrain excuse

The US and parts of Eastern Canada have similar terrain as the area around the Donald Bridge yet they would never build an undivided highway/highway bridge

Why does BC?

Why did they build it so... small scale? And don't say its because of $$$

Should have been 2 seperate bridges so the 2 directions are divided

BC seriously makes the WORST highway designs

I wouldn't think you'd need 2 bridges to divide it. Just add a barrier down the middle.

In my opinion the thing they do wrong is they don't divide the new highways automatically and tend to only upgrade an insignificant amount of roadway while they're at it. It's sad because once the death and injury toll reaches a certain level they'll likely add the barriers. One has to wonder how expensive those concrete barriers are in the overall cost. Surely nothing compared to a life - but even if you cheap out to save money you likely pay the cost anyway in terms of accidents which can cause significant delays and cost big time for insurance and medical costs. But politicians rarely think that way - that's why BC is likely dead last in deciding to finally twin the #1 highway even though it's their main link to the rest of Canada.

But anyway, the new bridge is a welcome improvement. Many of the original bridges were below standards from day one according to the BC MoT website - and anyone who had the hair raising experience of driving on a 1950's era bridge in BC knows they were extremely dangerous even in the 1950's. Besides the lack of safety barriers the main concern most people have is the extremely slow pace for the upgrades. 200 yrs is my estimate considering the current pace. Sad given the cost/benefit a modern highway would give BC.

I can't wait to finally drive on the new Donald section. I really hope they fixed the weigh scale section since it's ridiculous to expect cars and other traffic to slow down, yield, make lane changes etc just because of a truck weigh scale. Dangerous and inconvenient from day 1. It would be nice if BC just built stuff right to begin with. That truck station was practically brand new and even then they didn't double the highway there for much of it. And it has nothing to do with terrain. The terrain all the way to Golden and for quite a while towards Revelstoke is relatively easy to double, yet it's just frustrating and dangerous. Understandable if money was tight, but inexcusable given some of the expensive "fluff" that makes it into the budgets while dangerous roads are almost completely ignored for decades.

I don't think you can compare that Donald Bridge to any highway bridge in Japan. They usually build their bridges to quite high specifications. Their stndards are more in line with the US.

Japan almost always twins their bridges
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7083/6...8baedb43_b.jpg

For that particular one, the reason for the bridge to be twinned is most likely due to the tunnel.

I know in Taiwan, there's NO twinned bridge and grass median in any freeway except when there's a twin tunnel nearby or if the terrain requires a split grade. Most of the median in older freeways is just a small shrub in between 2 guardrails. The newer freeways almost always use just a jersey barrier. I think China have a similar system...

Yes but even if BC were to build them with the world's widest median he would then find something else he doesn't like, such as using the wrong material for sign posts, or the pavement not being 100% flat, or the wrong colour, this is the same troll that keeps popping up every 6 months or so and every post of his is to shit on every highway improvement BC does.

He was the guy who would not stop talking about jersey barriers in the past, he also criticized the new Port Mann bridge supports because the concrete was slightly different colors (due to it being new and still bleeding some moisture). He also hated the new Kicking Horse sections because they "cut too much off the sides of the mountains..." destroying the nature, and that no where else in the world would a highway do that :koko:

And yes, I use to live in Japan, and the majority of their highways have little to no median. In fact most are only designed for a 60 to 80 km/h speed. But you will never hear him bitch about that in another country, but if BC does that on a highway then it is the end of the world ;)

Pritchard to Hoffman's Bluff:

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/highwayproje...luff/index.htm

Project Scope

Design and construct 5.8 km of 4 lane alignment from existing Pritchard 4 lanes heading east. The project to include intersection and access improvements including consolidation of Willow Rd and Stoney Flats Rd intersections into the new Stoney Flats protected-T intersection and associated side road work.
The project will be delivered in 2 phases. Phase 1 will consist of a 2.8 km segment and Phase 2 will be a 3.0 km segment, moving from West to East


So it looks like things are finally moving forward again. I've been wondering for awhile if this segment would start before Monte Creek Phase 2, as the negotiations with the Neskonlith are still ongoing.

This is great but man is it painfully peacemeal.
I hope I live long enough to see the TCH twinned through BC.

Well.. I can live with few at-grade intersections and some RIROs. But again, no center median barriers?

Kind of hard to say. Phase 1 of Monte Creek to Pritchard doesn't mention having a barrier on the website, and yet they did install one. However, the Donald bridge project doesn't, nor did the Hilltop to Balmoral segment so who knows. Maybe if we bitch enough on this forum someone in the Ministry will notice. :haha:

At least barriers can be added on a whim. It is not as if they have to redesign the entire project to do so. They are all built with barrier installment in mind, just odd they don't put them in from the get go. All I can think of is these 4 lane sections (such as Donald Bridge) are relatively short, so they are waiting until further sections are added to do so.

This particular section is the continuation of the existing freeway, the newly twinned Monte Creek section, and an interchange at Pritchard. It would be odd if they didn't install barrier right away.

After the Hilltop section completed, there's a 11km of continuous 4-lane all the way to Ford Road. Yet they didn't bother to add a barrier beside a short ~400m one around a curve. For the 6km between Balmoral and Ford, they even grade separated the entire highway and built a frontage road, but not bothering to divide the roadway to make it a full "freeway" (I know the 2 RIROs are not built with freeway standard, but at least they are not at-grade crossings)

My dream would have been a 110 design speed where possible as recommended back in the early 90s. Too bad highways are so damned expensive now. :S

Seems to me a center barrier likely saved some lives on the coq the other day. An accident like that should have caused at least one head on collision, but was likely prevented by the center barrier. (I'm assuming that the accident didn't break through the center barrier).

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...-accident.html

There really is no excuse for BC's horrible highway designs

But of course there is: social engineering. Make roads so bad that people will stop driving. Bonus points for sticking it to Alberta's fossil fuel industry. :haha:

Hey now . . . ;)

GO STAMPS!