Calgary Stoney Trail [Ring Road]

[mersar]

From what they were saying on the radio council has put the decision on the closure off until late April. QR managed to play a soundbite from one of the most vocal people, indicated that they managed to only get 600 signatures. So thats 3.6% of the 2008 census population in the two communities (16642) who bothered to sign the petition. Compared to Brentwood that managed I believe it was 800 of their 6100 when the TOD issue came up.

[Full Mountain]

from what I read over here it sounds like they are going to ask the province to see if there is any way that the plan can be revised

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Clearly the only solution is to eliminate the children. Then there will be no children at risk.

had I been drinking water when I read this, I would have involuntarily spit it out

[freeweed]

What I do find perplexing is the city's position: "this was only ever a temporary road", as if it was meant to be superceded by something else in the future.

Seeing as no road access into either area has really changed in years, I'm not sure why that temporary road ever existed in the first place - or remained after what is supposedly sufficient for the community was built. If anything, a larger community needs BETTER road access - yet here we're seeing exactly the opposite. Build a ton of road capacity when it's not needed (again, why?) and then cut it down as the community grows. And scramble to add traffic controls to roads clearly over capacity.

Like I've said before, it's as if the city suddenly closed down the University LRT station, telling everyone "hey, Brentwood is just down the street - what, we built a bunch of new residential by it? Eh, there's plenty of capacity, trust us".

Don't even get me started as to why the hell much of the high density housing was built furthest from the future LRT station, thereby guaranteeing even more road use. Pure genius on the part of city planners and/or developers.

[mersar]

From how I understand it the road existed because it always had. Before it was Rocky Ridge Road it was 101st Street NW, which falls on the old township/range road system as Range Road 24. They left it in place while the community was being built to provide construction access, especially after they tore out parts of 85th Street, which used to run from Crowfoot (essentially right by where the 7-Eleven is) up past the prisons, leaving only the small part thats left in Arbour Lake and then the stretch north of Country Hills, and before Stoney was built up to Country Hills.

[freeweed]

Oh, my annoyances aside - this better not impact the opening of the LRT or the Stoney/Crowchild interchange. I'll be out for people's blood if this ends up being posturing with no change in results (ie: someone better have a feasible alternative on the table here).

[MalcolmTucker]

^ There is no better way that costs less than $75 million and still comply with provincial highway standards. Of course, you can likely keep parts for much less, but the cheapest is the least useful, RRR --> Crowchild west could likely be done for $3-5 million.

I think my prediction might be a bit low considering how hard it is to fit in with the lack of spacing and the major grade separation that is needed there. To go south/east bound on Crowchild, one would either have to have a tunnel until there was a safe place to merge, or to west/northbound and have a turnabout west of 12 mile Coulee Rd. to head back south/east.

The road is there because Dale Hodges kept it open in 1998, when he convinced council to pass a special amendment to the Rocky Ridge ASP. Otherwise, it would have been closed when Crowchild/1A was upgraded to four lanes.

And yes, if they get a delay past the next meeting, there is no way it will not impact the opening date of this phase of the interchange. It needs to be closed for earthwork.

[mersar]

Yeah, if they end up going back to the design board guaranteed it will be pushed into late 2010 or 2011 is my bet to finish the one ramp. Fortunately the bridge structures under Crowchild on the east side, and possibly the SB to EB bridge can still go ahead without being impacted, the question will be if the province will foot up anymore money to change things yet again. The LRT has a bit more of a cushion though only so much, it will depend a lot on exactly where the station will be situated relative to the intersection.

[craner]

Originally Posted by kyle_olsen

^

The road is there because Dale Hodges kept it open in 1998, when he convinced council to pass a special amendment to the Rocky Ridge ASP. Otherwise, it would have been closed when Crowchild/1A was upgraded to four lanes.

And yes, if they get a delay past the next meeting, there is no way it will not impact the opening date of this phase of the interchange. It needs to be closed for earthwork.

[lubicon]

Is there anything the community can really do, or the City for that matter. If the road is infringing on the interchange the province can probably say 'screw you' and force them to close the road off in order for the interchagne to proceed. If this area is actually part of the TUC (which I'm not 100% sure of) then there is likely very little the City can do, even if they wanted to.

I don't have any sympathy for those who are trying to stop the closure of a road that was always intended to be temporary, but I will admit it was very short sighted to build Rocky Ridge/Royal Oak with only 2 access roads, both of which are awkward to access and use.

[MalcolmTucker]

^ You just need to spin it better!

"The new access roads in Rocky Ridge mean I don't have to take a second trip to go to the grocery store, they are right on the way into the neighborhood!"

"These new access routes sure do improve safety, they keep speeding cars from ripping through the middle of our community, and they have stopped short cutting to get to our malls!"

"I hear that trucks from the cement plant won't be cutting through our neighborhood to help build the new Stoney interchange and our LRT station, thank god they closed that access road!"

[mersar]

The area is outside the TUC (although only just), which is why any solution would be complicated and could potentially leave the city on the hook for at least some of the cost. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that the province's suggested solution could turn out to be that they'll move the ramps so theres room for the city to build a Beddington Trail type flyover out of the city's pockets. Personally I can't see that being the suggestion though, I suspect the province will no want to budge too much, but we'll have to see.

[craner]

Did you hear what the Engineer hired by the community suggested as a possible solution ?
to paraphrase:
"there is plenty of room to redesign the interchange (at Stoney & Crow) in a standard cloverleaf configuration".

I just shook my head and thought - when was the last time you saw a cloverleaf interchange built - 30 years ago ?? There is a reason they don't get built anymore - THEY DON'T WORK (i.e. exit/entry weaving, speeds, etc.)

[mersar]

Yep. Either the city or the province had a page linked off one of the NW projects explaining why Cloverleafs aren't used anymore.

[RAFS]

Came across this website when I was trying to figure out what type of interchanges are the best. None of these are the best!!!

http://www.curiousread.com/2008/12/worlds-worst-intersections-pics.html

[canlefty]

Originally Posted by craner

I just shook my head and thought - when was the last time you saw a cloverleaf interchange built - 30 years ago ?? There is a reason they don't get built anymore - THEY DON'T WORK (i.e. exit/entry weaving, speeds, etc.)

This is really the big reason (speed is a tertiary concern). As we all know, the province will give a license to anyone, and as a result we have many people out there who don't know how to merge.

Imagine a 300m ish weave lane on a cloverleaf with a 68 yr old asian woman driving a minivan stopped dead in the middle of the lane "waiting" and ergo blocking both entry and exit.... If people here don't know what to do on an generous 750m merge lane with extra shoulder runout, we can all see that a cloverleaf would be useless here. Then throw in even the slightest bit of snow forcing every man/woman/child on the road to drive 50km/h below the posted limit and you've got a compounding disaster.

/rant

[korzym]

alright chaps, they made an update to their winter photo section which I ripped into them for lacking any decent pictures. these pics are from the stoney trail group site

16th NE #1

16th NE #2


country hills blvd


deerfoot #1, apparently taken as the helicopter was crashing to the right

deerfoot#2

[korzym]

Driving into Calgary, at 16th NE & stoney
• Video Link

Driving out of Calgary

[YYCguys]

I sure wish there were highway patrols out at the Deerfoot/Stoney construction zone where the speed limit is 80 but most drivers choose to make up their own speed limit, mostly faster. Does this speed limit apply to after dark when the workers are probably not working anyways?

[frinkprof]

^You're probably right. However, it's a lot better than it was a year ago when there was such a weird transition from the old lane markers to the detour lane markers.