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Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn
I’ve never really found the harbour passage + sidewalks inadequate to get across Reversing Falls on foot. On bike… yeah, that can be a little scary.
What’s really needed for the West Side is a direct link between the Carleton peninsula and Uptown’s Central peninsula. Whether that’s a separate pedestrian bridge or addition to the Harbour Bridge, the return of a cross harbour ferry, or, perhaps most interestingly, a tunnel.
I think many on here are overestimating how much a tunnel would cost, and perhaps underestimating how much earth would be moved that could then be used to fill in the decrepit piers at the port on the west side, or for the sugar refinery site in the south end.
Simply put, it shouldn’t take 1.5 hours to walk between the West Side and Uptown. Even if the Harbour Passage did go through Ocean Steel, it’s not going to make the walk any faster, it will just be a little more scenic. We need more convenient solutions.
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I disagree, I think you are grossly underestimating how much a tunnel would cost, not only because of the geology of the city but also that you need more than just a tunnel you need all the associated infrastructure on both ends as well. We're likely talking nearly a billion dollars for a project that could be replaced by simple changes to roadways, or at most a large project to add pedestrian/bike space to the existing bridge.
On the topic of Harbour Passage, isn't all of Douglas Avenue going to be upgraded to be the extension as a part of the Museum project? I thought that was part of the funding announcement last year.
Finally, it doesn't take much imagination to understand that JDI could easily build a parking garage on-site. Just go look at how the jimmied a pre-cast parking structure next to the water at the Halifax Shipyard to meet demand there because they didn't have enough adjacent land to play with. Just shut down the parking lot in the park idea, and make them go back to the drawing board and add a parking garage to their plans, redo their economic impact numbers to account for even more construction jobs now that they are building another structure, call it a win for industry and move on.
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