I completely don't understand the logic with this freeway. Putting aside whether or not somebody thinks it's a waste of money, is unnecessary or whatever, why doesn't it directly connect highways 11 and 16? The entire southwest section of the freeway doesn't seem to be in the plans but wouldn't that be just about the busiest section? Am I wrong about that?

Given that I'm not a Saskatoon native and haven't been there in decades, I'm completely out of touch with the rationale here but that just seems so counterintuitive. I would have thought the busiest highways would have been 11 and 16. Is that not the case? I mean, outside of the Saskatoon metro region of course. Considering that the idea is that ring roads are supposed to funnel traffic around a city rather than through it, wouldn't it be the most logical route from 11 northwest to 16 as the shortest route? I know the land through this area isn't good for residential construction and was pegged for industrial but that can't be the main reason this section isn't being considered...or is it?

Money. I'm sure it is on the very long term radar but is WAY down the priority list. These three locations (Airport, Laurier, and Clancy) don't even have enough traffic to really justify the cost of grade separation, and I'm actually surprised the Laurier one hasn't been made RIRO (Right-in, Right-out only) by now.

I’m not too concerned about those 3 actually,l because there’s plenty of ROW. If anything, IMO access from Laurier and Clancy should just be closed. The part that I’m really concerned about is from Airport to Louis Riel. This is where I think that nothing short of overpasses atop the current alignment will cut it. I won’t even bother with the eastern portion because it’s too built up.

Also, who’s able to answer Spocket’s question?

Edit: Never mind, Clancy can’t be closed, but replaced with access to and from service roads.

I thought this was simply a nod to our historic ass-backwards method of freeway development in these parts. For approximately 20 years Circle Drive was just 3/4 of a circle, as it was missing that same S-E quadrant of the circle. At that time, I believe the argument was that there is little traffic coming from the south of Saskatoon on Highway 11 and then heading west along Highways 7 & 14 (and vice versa) and that was probably true. Any traffic headed that direction from Regina would have likely turned west on Highway 15 at Kenaston. For traffic along the Regina-Edmonton route (hwys 11 & 16), the key connection was the intersection of Circle Drive and Idylwyld Drive so a south bridge and completion of the circle wouldn't really change that as there was no plan to run the western part of Circle Drive all the way up to Highway 16.

Now that we're looking at a Perimeter Highway situation, I agree that a roadway crossing the river and skirting the south and west sides of Saskatoon would be far more efficient for movement of commercial traffic along that corridor. My guess for the once-again missing part of the circle is that there is likely a great deal of traffic (but not heavy truck traffic) travelling from south/east Saskatoon to Martensviille, Warman and Prince Albert and the southeast part of a Perimeter highway does nothing to aid that traffic flow. That's my only guess as to why that key portion would be omitted.

I would have hoped that we would have learned from our decades-delayed completion of Circle Drive, but apparently not.

Oh I thought by "western portion" you were referring to that stretch between 11th St and Ave C... yes I agree with you that Circle Dr at Idylwyld/Louis Riel Trail and the surrounding area is a clusterf*ck. A few years ago there was talk of the city re-jigging the overpass to be a single-point interchange (SPI) or diverging-diamond interchange which would help alleviate the problems getting through. I'm sure it's near the top of the priority list still.

The whole Circle Dr N, between Ave C to Millar is a mess. When they get around to making some changes I think it would beneficial if the city also closed off, or made RIRO at Circle & Alberta/Northridge... Faithful and Quebec intersections also pose a challenge, and of course Millar ave is going to be an expensive fix when the city eventually decides to separate the grade there. A service road could work there some day but would require appropriation of land and removal of some existing buildings, but could allow for better grade separation and allow Circle to be the freeway it was always meant to be.

sorry Dengler here you go thought it was called Saskatoon freeway so overlooked this thread

https://saskatoonfreeway.org/phase-1/

Oh yea I saw. Thanks. I even downloaded the pdf’s of the 3 major interchanges.

It is called the Saskatoon Freeway. Maybe the title of this thread could be updated to call it that?

I still prefer calling it the Saskatoon Bypass (in tribute to the bungled Regina Bypass), but it does appear that the name is the Saskatoon Freeway.

Of all things, the name of a thread is something that I can’t change...

Do you need a power upgrade?

Nah thanks, too busy to moderate forums at this moment.
You see? On #1, I can change the title of the post but not the name of the thread...

I just meant the power to change the name of thread you created. I'm surprised that creators of threads can't do that.

The reason why there is no connection planned across the south section of the Saskatoon Freeway is because they can’t get the land to put it through. The entire area has been filled up with acreage homes, and between them and golf courses and parks, there isn’t a place to put it through where very vocal people with LOTS of money wouldn’t be screaming bloody murder. The province tried to come up with a route through there and ran into so much pushback they gave up.

Heaviest traffic that will use this most? Regina and Yorkton highways to North Battleford in both directions. Then to PA next. Rosetown after that. Humboldt, Biggar, Blaine Lake far behind.

SouthEast to SouthWest and vice versa just doesn’t have much demand.

Going around and across the river on one side is all that’s needed. It doesn’t increase distance much to leave one Hugely expensive quarter out of it that would be used by fewest amount of drivers.

^^^^^ Good points, Rob. That missing section would really only benefit traffic between the Yorkton stretch of the Yellowhead and Highway 7 to Rosetown. Traffic from Regina wanting to head towards Rosetown would just use Highway 15 straight west through Outlook. It’s just the thought of an incomplete circle that seems wrong.

We just need to stop thinking of this in terms of it being a circle, but as Saskatonians, circular drives, whether complete or not, are always on the brain!

here is link to some bridge crossings for Saskatoon Freeway

https://saskatoonfreeway.org/river-crossing/

Not that I am a great proponent of the "saskatoon freeway extention"...IF they are to build another bridge as part of the project, I do hope it is the 'suspension' type design one.

I am still very concerned about the North Swale and the impact that the current north bridge and any future bridge further north has on that. It may not be exciting or "sexy" species that exist in this rare ecosystem, but that doesn't mean they are not worth trying to protect.

My "green" rant for the day

They should just go all in like China and build a replica Tower Bridge as a tourist attraction... :haha:

Here's to hoping they build the suspended version sometime before 2050.

Is Moe going to use this to jump start the economy?