The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[TitleRequired]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

Green Zone rumour mill. As with my earlier post about the East side spot, please salt heavily.

West side residents are convinced it'll be between Prince and the throughway, off of Riverview (behind Olsen's)

Over north, the PID between Taylor and Somerset off Taylor is what multiple people are convinced of.

South, could be anywhere, but we will likely be blessed with two. I assume one of them is the public ROW between Garden, Station, and the Somerset overpass.

All of these sound plausible. What's with the delayed announcement, and will it actually come with clearing out encampments outside of these areas?

Are they going to clear our partridge island?

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by TitleRequired

Are they doing to clear our patridge island?

"clear our Partridge Island" ?..........What does that even mean?

[TitleRequired]

Originally Posted by sailor734

"clear our Partridge Island" ?..........What does that even mean?

Fair amount of needles and drug paraphernalia on Partridge island.

[sailor734]

delete

[sailor734]

Looks like SJ isn't the only place that developers are jumping the gun to move people into unfinished buildings

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot...evation-building-macara-street-1.7333478

[cdnguys]

[905er]

^^ this is a proposal? Did the architect even try? Did some third grader win a contest? what is this shit?

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by 905er

^^ this is a proposal? Did the architect even try? Did some third grader win a contest? what is this shit?

Just a guess but........Boxes are cheaper to build and design embellishments cost money. In this market there is no need to compete for renters. Build it as cheaply as you can and maximize profit.

[cdnguys]

Originally Posted by 905er

^^ this is a proposal? Did the architect even try? Did some third grader win a contest? what is this shit?

You can’t build buildings that you are used to in Toronto when rent here in new builds is $1650 to $2200 a month - the economics just aren’t there. Reality is locals will like the design and that’s ok. It’s in an area of several 1970’s built 16 unit buildings so it’s actually an improvement. If you want to get more fulfilled with opportunity to judge, look at new builds in Fredericton and Charlottetown - especially Charlottetown !

[905er]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

You can’t build buildings that you are used to in Toronto when rent here in new builds is $1650 to $2200 a month - the economics just aren’t there. Reality is locals will like the design and that’s ok. It’s in an area of several 1970’s built 16 unit buildings so it’s actually an improvement. If you want to get more fulfilled with opportunity to judge, look at new builds in Fredericton and Charlottetown - especially Charlottetown !

I still don't think cheap has to be ugly. That just sounds like an excuse and if we always have that as an excuse we'll always expect ugly.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

Why go through all the extra hoops and regulations to build over six storeys to just build seven?

Uninspired designs are fine sometimes, as long as they fill a need.


BC has allowed up mass timber construction up to 18 storeys… considering NB is full of forests, with some of the largest forestry and construction companies in Canada… maybe NB should look at following BC’s lead and start pursuing mass timber projects.

Still, we need to formulate a better strategy to get 20-30+ storey buildings built here in Saint John, and not just in Moncton.

Susan Holt wants to build 30,000 new homes by 2030… the taller we build, the less urban sprawl.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by 905er

I still don't think cheap has to be ugly. That just sounds like an excuse and if we always have that as an excuse we'll always expect ugly.

Not only does cheap not have to be ugly, tall doesn’t have to be expensive. Many on these forums have tried to present a false narrative that only luxury apartments and condos get built over 20 storeys.

There’s absolutely ways to build high rise residential affordably. David Coon brought up an interesting point in the debates around property taxes for landlords… that basically affordable rental properties should be taxed at a lower rate, as to give private developers the incentive to actually build the type of affordable housing we need.

Our municipalities deal with all kinds of urban sprawl issues, mid rises and high rises should be a bigger part of that, and there’s no reason they need to look ugly.

What Saint John needs is more inspired apartments and condos. This video on the return of art deco architecture is quite interesting. This type of architectural style would mesh well with Saint John’s urban aesthetic.

[adamuptownsj]

CBC banging the Simms Corner drum again: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-bruns...-brunswick-provincial-election-1.7332375

I don't really think it's an extremely urgent priority, certainly not one people are voting on. Any true improvement would require a cut-and-cover tunnel for the rail line, under both Fairville Blvd and Main St W, emerging just east of Mill St. Anything else wouldn't really fix the problem of traffic totally halting (excluding Lancaster-Bridge) when a train passes, and a roundabout with two entrances and two exits crossed by tracks would be... interesting. Normalizing the intersection to a four-way over buried rail would likely be cheaper than a roundabout over it, and would hopefully be eligible for tripartite funding... and maybe something from the railroads themselves.

A tunnel would likely need to be wide enough for two rail lines, as there's a persistent rumour of rail twinning coming, and the ROW is almost certainly wide enough. Perhaps that would just be west of Bay St so it could be a moot point.

Maybe a quick fix would be a Fairville-Main connection southwest of the tracks. Might be unwieldy but I am not a traffic engineer by any means. Maybe forbid left turns from the westbound lanes of Main onto it, IDK. I don't think I've seen this half-assed half-fix before. All you'd have to do is expropriate the Tim's/Wendy's parking lot (probably the whole site, TBH).

https://imgur.com/a/hcqT6Zs

Thoughts? I'll try to clumsily draw what Simms would look like as a regular four way intersection tonight.

[TitleRequired]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

CBC banging the Simms Corner drum again: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-bruns...-brunswick-provincial-election-1.7332375

I don't really think it's an extremely urgent priority, certainly not one people are voting on. Any true improvement would require a cut-and-cover tunnel for the rail line, under both Fairville Blvd and Main St W, emerging just east of Mill St. Anything else wouldn't really fix the problem of traffic totally halting (excluding Lancaster-Bridge) when a train passes, and a roundabout with two entrances and two exits crossed by tracks would be... interesting. Normalizing the intersection to a four-way over buried rail would likely be cheaper than a roundabout over it, and would hopefully be eligible for tripartite funding... and maybe something from the railroads themselves.

A tunnel would likely need to be wide enough for two rail lines, as there's a persistent rumour of rail twinning coming, and the ROW is almost certainly wide enough. Perhaps that would just be west of Bay St so it could be a moot point.

Maybe a quick fix would be a Fairville-Main connection southwest of the tracks. Might be unwieldy but I am not a traffic engineer by any means. Maybe forbid left turns from the westbound lanes of Main onto it, IDK. I don't think I've seen this half-assed half-fix before. All you'd have to do is expropriate the Tim's/Wendy's parking lot (probably the whole site, TBH).

https://imgur.com/a/hcqT6Zs

Thoughts? I'll try to clumsily draw what Simms would look like as a regular four way intersection tonight.

Whats the accident rate at this intersection? Is it above acceptable guidelines?

[sailor734]

I grew up on the westside and never really understood what all the fuss was about regarding Simms Corner. I do agree that increasing rail traffic is the biggest issue and there is not much point doing anything to the intersection unless you address that.

[Pugsley]

Originally Posted by sailor734

I grew up on the westside and never really understood what all the fuss was about regarding Simms Corner. I do agree that increasing rail traffic is the biggest issue and there is not much point doing anything to the intersection unless you address that.

Agreed, though I did experience the bridge traffic on Friday at 5pm for the first time. I never have a reason to come into town at 5pm but was blown away by the traffic into Uptown from the west side. It took me 30min in traffic to cross the bridge - at a snail's pace from before Bleury/Catherwood to the bridge. I imagine once the construction on the harbour Bridge is completed this will be resolved but clearly, a lot of traffic needs to cross between the east side and west side and will only get amplified once the Irving Expansion is completed.

Resolving the rail crossing I would suspect is a decent first step but that would be a challenging project to lower and go under the street while still allowing trains to pass.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by Pugsley

Agreed, though I did experience the bridge traffic on Friday at 5pm for the first time. I never have a reason to come into town at 5pm but was blown away by the traffic into Uptown from the west side. It took me 30min in traffic to cross the bridge - at a snail's pace from before Bleury/Catherwood to the bridge. I imagine once the construction on the harbour Bridge is completed this will be resolved but clearly, a lot of traffic needs to cross between the east side and west side and will only get amplified once the Irving Expansion is completed.

Resolving the rail crossing I would suspect is a decent first step but that would be a challenging project to lower and go under the street while still allowing trains to pass.

Don't get me started on the Harbour Bridge project taking about 3 times as long as it should thanks to the penny pinching approach the provincial government has taken to this.

Makes me look back fondly on the days of the tolls and the Bridge Authority looking after maintenance.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

How much would it cost to make a harbour tunnel?

[cdnguys]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

How much would it cost to make a harbour tunnel?

Rough estimate $128,500,000 if 1km in length. Excluded expropriation if necessary.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

Rough estimate $128,500,000 if 1km in length. Excluded expropriation if necessary.

Not so outrageous then, hmm. Interesting.