http://www.nenshi.ca/new/2010/204
Posted: Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 10:55 PM | By: Team Nenshi
There has been a lot of misinformation on the airport tunnel issue lately. We dealt with this way back in July when we released Better Idea #4: Calgarians will have quick, convenient access to their airport.
However, a lot of folks, and one candidate in particular, have been muddying the waters, and it’s important to get the real facts on the table.
We sent the following statement to the media today, and are sharing it with everyone here:
“For several weeks now, Ald. Bob Hawkesworth has staked his campaign on one issue – opposition to the airport tunnel, the same tunnel he voted for repeatedly, most recently last September.
But in his press briefing, released today, he has gone too far. Every paragraph contains at least one significant misstatement or factual error.
First, the cost of the project. No one except Ald. Hawkesworth has ever suggested that the tunnel itself will actually cost $500 million. Estimates for the tunnel have ranged from $40 million to $198 million, with roughly $175 million being the consensus estimate at City Hall. It’s worth noting that a report presented to Ald. Hawkesworth in July said that the cost to not build the tunnel is $350 million, which the City has already budgeted. So the incremental cost of the tunnel is $150 million not the $500 million he claims.
Council has already set aside $50 million for the project, and there is $123 million of unallocated provincial money to come over the course of the next seven years. Borrowing against this cash flow would put taxpayers on the hook for about $2.5 million per year for seven years, not the $500 million he claims.
Further, the Airport Trail Advisory Committee, with whom Ald. Hawkesworth has never met, is not a “small northeast hotel-industry lobby group” but a group of many community associations plus business owners and other stakeholders.
I am deeply disappointed that Ald. Hawkesworth would practice this kind of divisive us-and-them politics. He has learned his lesson well from Mayor Bronconnier’s Council – winning matters more than doing the right thing.”
And here are some Frequently Asked Questions:
Do we need the tunnel?
Yes. It’s been part of the City’s plan since 1995, and was re-affirmed in our long-term plan last September. But Council never set aside the money for it. If we don’t build it now, it will cost $1.2 billion or more to build it in the future – and that’s assuming we even could bore under a live runway!
Without the tunnel, commute times to the airport would double for northeast workers and businesses, and there would be no access to the east side of the city for a distance equivalent to that between City Hall and Heritage Drive. There would be only one functional entrance to the airport, off of an already-clogged Deerfoot Trail.
How many people are impacted?
YYC is one of the busiest airports in Canada, serving over 12 million passengers per year. It’s also one of the largest employment centres in the city, with some 15 to 18,000 people working on the airport lands.
Assuming that a conservative one-third of the workers are commuting from the east side of the airport, not having a tunnel means an additional 36,000 km driven on Calgary roads – every single day.
Principia Communications estimates, using even more conservative projections, that not having the tunnel will cost individual Calgarians $4 million per year forever, and will result in an additional 880 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
How much will it cost?
Not $500 million. The $500 million cost has been thrown around by many, but it is a number not grounded in any fact. City administration reports that the cost of not building the tunnel is $350 million in additional road upgrades throughout NE Calgary, so even if $500 million is realistic, the actual additional cost of the tunnel is $150 million.
$150 million is less in today’s dollars than the cost of major interchanges like Glenmore/Elbow and likely less than the ultimate cost of the Glenmore/37th interchange. How come we don’t have endless debates about how most people in Calgary live north of Glenmore?
Can’t existing roads handle the traffic?
No. They can’t. Try driving north on Deerfoot after 4:00pm. Any day of the week. You can’t. Any additional traffic would be crippling.
And the current roads to the east are insufficient. 36th Street northeast is a narrow strip of asphalt with no lane markings and no shoulders – and there is no plan to upgrade it. Metis Trail, when completed, will still only be two lanes in portions.
Doesn’t this only help people in the northeast?
This is a city, not four cities. Each quadrant matters and deserves the best Calgary has to offer.
Also, it’s not true. Deerfoot Trail is used by all Calgarians. Airport Trail, when built properly, will be a major east/west corridor for commerce and transportation for the Northwest and the Northeast, as well as making Stoney Trail much more useful.
The tunnel, despite the name, isn’t just for the airport, but it will serve the enormous planned industrial and residential areas in the northeast, with many tens of thousands of residents and workers.
But we don’t have the money, do we?
City Council has set aside $50 million already. Aldermen Stevenson, Jones, and Chabot found an additional unallocated $123 million from the province, meaning that the actual cost of the tunnel is now fully funded. This will cost between $15 and $20 million in interest, but that’s far less than the $1.2 billion or more it will cost us if we wait.
What about the businesses in the area?
The airport area is a vital, buzzing centre of activity, with many restaurants, hotels, and stores. Most of these businesses are new, and were built precisely because the city promised this tunnel. Without the tunnel, many will fail.
This is just about cars. Isn’t improving transit a better solution?
We need the tunnel for effective transit to the airport. It’s almost impossible to serve the airport from the east without it. Others would tell an airport worker who lives in Martindale and can see her office from her deck that she needs to go downtown and then take an “express” bus all the way up Centre Street to get to work. She’ll just drive, thanks.
The tunnel will facilitate an immediate express bus from the NE LRT line, provide for future LRT, and link the NE and proposed North-Centre LRT lines by fast transit.
Prev
Linear Mode
