Winnipeg Roads & Infrastructure

[Carboy15]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

This set-up should be used way more often. I think about this at a lot off locations actually. Sitting waiting for the non-existent traffic to turn left.

And looking at this diagram, I feel like a segregated T intersection should be used in more places. At Highway 16 and 1 near Portage La Prairie, 305 should be realigned to a different intersection and 1 & 16 would be a 3 way intersection

[bodaggin]

The French just tore out an 8-lane road, installed a dual track tram tunnel underneath, and repaved it in 5 days. Five days.

Last month they did one in 4 days.

If the fucking French can do it, we sure as hell can. St Mary's overpass has been under construction for how long? Manitoba: Get your heads out of your asses NOW! Everyone should bombard MTI with this link.

https://x.com/euro_projects/status/1827333601773424707

[plrh]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

The French just tore out an 8-lane road, installed a dual track tram tunnel underneath, and repaved it in 5 days. Five days.

Last month they did one in 4 days.

If the fucking French can do it, we sure as hell can. St Mary's overpass has been under construction for how long? Manitoba: Get your heads out of your asses NOW! Everyone should bombard MTI with this link.

https://x.com/euro_projects/status/1827333601773424707

But what did it cost?

[drew]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

On the topic of smart imagineering: More pre-cast please.

Whole overpasses, not just girders. Especially in a climate with <150 day construction season. Pre-cast in warm factories during winter, rapid-assemble onsite during the short summer window. None of this Mickey Mouse tarp and heater stuff. Cast-in-place is part of the reason MB overpasses are so slow and expensive.

This same technology is available to buildings in this province, and it is generally rarely used, or used for small components only (balconies, pre-cast piles, etc)

The issue is cost, there are only 1 or 2 companies that supply these products locally, and they know it, and charge accordingly. IMO another issue with precast is the more complicated remediation required down the road when the salt and freeze/thaw inevitably does its damage.

The heating/protection of concrete has come a long way. No commercial guys are using giant herman nelsons anymore. They are weaving sacrificial glycol lines inside the concrete and using boilers and tarps to heat the concrete from the inside out. Much more effective and efficient.

[drew]

Just took a road trip to Wisconsin this past week. The interstates are great, but in terms of ride quality North Dakota>Minnesota>Wisconsin.

A couple of rambling thoughts:
- driving around Minneapolis with its never ending network of freeways, exits, overpasses, on ramps, traffic, construction, was an entirely joyless experience. Blech. If road infrastructure could be defined in terms of bread - Minneapolis is pure white wonder bread, Winnipeg is slightly stale multigrain.
- The interstates with the free-flowing controlled access is a necessary thing, especially in Minnesota with the amount of traffic. Just constant traffic. This same system is obviously overkill in most of North Dakota - outside of within the Fargo and Grand Forks city limits - this is definitely a case of a State gaining an outsized benefit from a well funded Federal system. There just isn't enough traffic to justify it in this area, and I would argue that same for much of the TCH in Manitoba - except for in and around Winnipeg.
- That being said, priorities in MB should be bypasses of Morris, St. Norbert, Headingly and interchanges of the south portion of the Perimeter Highway.
- The newly reconstructed Highway 75 is at a surface quality equal to the Inter-states IMO.

[bodaggin]

Remember those T-Intersection bypass lanes we were talking about? Using them on this 1.1 mile strip of Bishop could eliminate the equivalent of 4 lights. Three westbound. One eastbound. For dirt cheap too. Get these inner rings flowing freer.

[The Jabroni]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

Remember those T-Intersection bypass lanes we were talking about? Using them on this 1.1 mile strip of Bishop could eliminate the equivalent of 4 lights. Three westbound. One eastbound. For dirt cheap too. Get these inner rings flowing freer.

OR, have Abinoji be completely redone below grade, and have service roads parallel on each side and have overpasses going to the respective neighbourhoods. Obviously that is the ideal way to do it, but will also cost an incessant amount of green cheddar to do so.

[Carboy15]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

Remember those T-Intersection bypass lanes we were talking about? Using them on this 1.1 mile strip of Bishop could eliminate the equivalent of 4 lights. Three westbound. One eastbound. For dirt cheap too. Get these inner rings flowing freer.

The segregated T-intersection is a smart idea. They have 2 in Saskatoon on Circle Drive West. Not only would the road be free-er flowing, but less confict points. I think that should have been done on the Perimeter Hwy at the Waverly and Kenaston intersections (which would be cost effective vs one big intersection). Yes, an interchange will be placed there eventually, but would be an awesome preliminary design.

[Biff]

I must not be understanding something here.

I like the idea of the T intersection, but the way I see it, it doesn’t replace any lights. The yellow is free flowing, but anywhere there is blue, the cross traffic will have to stop. Just like the flyover at Bishop and Kenaston. If we build bridges then sure, but I was understanding as this was low cost.

[bomberjet]

Ya that's right. Just let's the one side through without stopping. Helps minimize the queueing.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by Carboy15

The segregated T-intersection is a smart idea. They have 2 in Saskatoon on Circle Drive West.

Nice find man! I knew these must have existed, just couldn't find any in practice. Google street view of it here.

Originally Posted by Biff

I must not be understanding something here. I like the idea of the T intersection, but the way I see it, it doesn’t replace any lights.

Biff imagine you are driving Bishop. Westbound from Lag to Dakota. Then Eastbound Dakota to Lag. Right now if you drive it, you will hit 4 lights in each direction. Slowing the flow both ways.

But if we stuck in this T-Intersection bypass thing:

-Lag to Dakota WB would only hit 1 light. We shaved 3 lights off its journey. A huge savings.
-Dakota to Lag EB would only hit 3 lights. We removed 1 light from its journey. Not perfect, because more Tee's are south of Lag, but still an improvement.

And it's a tiny modification with minimal cost. Change a couple lights, add a barrier, and pave 200m of lane and you're done.

[WildCake]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

Nice find man! I knew these must have existed, just couldn't find any in practice. Google street view of it here.




Biff imagine you are driving Bishop. Westbound from Lag to Dakota. Then Eastbound Dakota to Lag. Right now if you drive it, you will hit 4 lights in each direction. Slowing the flow both ways.

But if we stuck in this T-Intersection bypass thing:

-Lag to Dakota WB would only hit 1 light. We shaved 3 lights off its journey. A huge savings.
-Dakota to Lag EB would only hit 3 lights. We removed 1 light from its journey. Not perfect, because more Tee's are south of Lag, but still an improvement.

And it's a tiny modification with minimal cost. Change a couple lights, add a barrier, and pave 200m of lane and you're done.

Not a bad idea, just an additional cost of pedestrian/AT overpasses at Shorehill and Lakewood that shouldn't be ignored given that the free flow lanes will not provide an opportunity to cross.

[Glenn99]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

Remember those T-Intersection bypass lanes we were talking about? Using them on this 1.1 mile strip of Bishop could eliminate the equivalent of 4 lights. Three westbound. One eastbound. For dirt cheap too. Get these inner rings flowing freer.

Something innovative and different. Madness!!

[bomberjet]

The City basically has this set-up at Kenaston/Bishop on the big curve. Except the fly-over eliminates part of the blue conflict.

Any three legged intersection could have this set-up if the city wanted. I'd reserve for the 80 km/h routes and maybe some of the ones on the larger stroads, location dependent, to get things flowing better.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by WildCake

Not a bad idea, just an additional cost of pedestrian/AT overpasses at Shorehill and Lakewood that shouldn't be ignored given that the free flow lanes will not provide an opportunity to cross.

Solution 1: Combine Shorehill/Lakewood into 1 light. (Picture)
Solution 2: Combine only the walkways into 1 crossing. Add a pedestrian controlled light to cross the bypass lanes. Pedestrian requests will still be far less here than the 45 second light. Still a net benefit to Bishop flow.

[craner]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

This guy is such an idiot - I cannot believe he is in the position he is.

[bomberjet]

Minister of Environment and Climate Change, telling people to walk instead of drive. Seems to fit the bill exactly.

[bodaggin]

9mths of brainstorming and the best the CoW bean counters could come up with is a 10kph speed reduction on Wilkes. Also $2.5 million for a traffic light at Wilkes/Elmhurst.

For a fucking traffic light.

You have to stand in awe at the incompetence in this city.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...%2Fh%20to%2070.

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

9mths of brainstorming and the best the CoW bean counters could come up with is a 10kph speed reduction on Wilkes. Also $2.5 million for a traffic light at Wilkes/Elmhurst.

For a fucking traffic light.

You have to stand in awe at the incompetence in this city.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...%2Fh%20to%2070.

Incompetence? Really? You have absolutely no idea how municipal planning works, do you. You really think the "bean counters" and engineers don't know how to properly fix a high speed 2 lane road that has a lot of collisions? Of course they do. They'd tell you to make it 4 lanes and cut off access, pave the shoulders, and add lights where necessary. But that's what you do if you have an actual budget to fix things.

Instead, the "bean counters" and engineers get told "fix this multi-million dollar problem with a budget of $100,000 maximum because we don't want to shell out the cash for real fixes."

The problem isn't incompetence, the problem is a lack of funds to properly build our infrastructure to meet our capacity needs. The result is things are overly congested and unsafe. The problem starts with councilors who don't want to raise the funds needed to fix our problem, which means ultimately the problem rests with the public that elects our cheap skate politicians.

Its so annoying to see people bash planners and engineers who actually know how to do their jobs really well, but in reality aren't given the budget to do so and instead have to find cheap workarounds that would be scoffed at in any other major city.

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by Winnipegger

The problem isn't incompetence, the problem is a lack of funds to properly build our infrastructure to meet our capacity needs. The result is things are overly congested and unsafe. The problem starts with councilors who don't want to raise the funds needed to fix our problem, which means ultimately the problem rests with the public that elects our cheap skate politicians.

Cost is also a problem here. Take a look at the cost of the twinning of Highway 17 in Ontario or the four-laning of the TCH from Alberta to Kamploops and then compare that to the cost of adding a lane for 8 blocks on Kenaston (the pro-rated cost for the widening, not the total project cost). For some reason, costs of these projects in Manitoba are astronomically higher than in other jurisdictions, even ones that are just over the provincial border.