South Fraser Perimeter Road/Highway 17 Extension | Completed

[DKaz]

Originally Posted by Andlauer

Whats worse? Being anti-LRT or anti-road/highway?

I'm not against the skytrain routes we already have in place. But adding more should be out of the question until our roads and highways have been addressed.

Which other roads are we going to need to address? Other than upgrading Mary Hill Bypass to full freeway standards and upgrading Hwy 99 which is likely going to happen right after Gateway is completed. Hwy 99 will remain pretty bad anyway due to the Oak St. Bridge bottleneck. There's the Stormont-McBride connector as well. Patullo Bridge is going to be replaced by Translink in 10 years.

[CrazyCommute]

Originally Posted by racc

...Compared to transit, our roads are excellent...

That's gold, Jerry -- gold!

Thanks for the laugh.

How about this: they're both a freaking joke.

[CrazyCommute]

Originally Posted by mattropolis

The Gateway plan should be scrapped as currently planned and replaced with a rapid regional rail system linking Squamish-Horseshoe Bay-Vancouver-Burnaby-New West-Surrey-Langley-Abbotstford-Chilliwack.

And this attitude, ladies and gentlemen, is why we're driving around on pathetic donkey trails that were already outdated 50 years ago.

[Mininari]

The closure of the King Edward underpass for construction of the new overpass makes a STRONG case to have the 4-lane bridge in place over the Brunette River as soon as possible on the United-Braid connection.

I guess its virtually impossible to maintain the current underpass while building an overpass overhead. They probably want to demolish the underpass and lower the highway FIRST, so they don't have to build the new overpass extra high.

[raggedy13]

Originally Posted by Andlauer

Twinning the Massey Tunnel

Desperately needed more than any public transit initiative

I'd disagree. The Massey Tunnel is a major choke point but it's in much better shape than a lot of transit routes. There is more of a backup at the Oak Street Bridge than the Massey Tunnel anyways and even that isn't that bad. The traffic along the 99 corridor while not ideal is still relatively congestion free compared to other cities' traffic. I've spent time commuting from White Rock to downtown Vancouver AND I have experience taking transit (unlike you I'm assuming). A SkyTrain line down Broadway would be a much wiser investment at this point in time. The number of people inconvenienced by the congestion there is much greater and it directly serves some of the regions greatest economic engines such as UBC, the medical precinct, the second largest office cluster in the region (Broadway corridor) and of course many people use Broadway on their way downtown (the largest concentration of jobs in the region).

[DKaz]

Originally Posted by Mininari

The closure of the King Edward underpass for construction of the new overpass makes a STRONG case to have the 4-lane bridge in place over the Brunette River as soon as possible on the United-Braid connection.

I guess its virtually impossible to maintain the current underpass while building an overpass overhead. They probably want to demolish the underpass and lower the highway FIRST, so they don't have to build the new overpass extra high.

Why are they closing the underpass? I thought the new overpass would be built like this:

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/PMH1/doc...MH1_10_King_Edward_Reference_Concept.pdf

Oops nevermind:

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

So, just saw a leaflet about the King Edward Upgrade in Coquitlam near Ikea. It's part of the Gateway initiative. It will now be straight and completely replace the current underpass instead of swerving close to the Driving Range, which will mean United Blvd. will become a whole lot more difficult to access for a while. This was a request from Coquitlam to help them realize their vision for the area.

Ouch!!!

[nname]

Originally Posted by Andlauer

Twinning the Massey Tunnel

Desperately needed more than any public transit initiative

Extend the Canada Line to Ladner and then build a massive park and ride in the area would probably be a cheaper option for this.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by Mininari

The closure of the King Edward underpass for construction of the new overpass makes a STRONG case to have the 4-lane bridge in place over the Brunette River as soon as possible on the United-Braid connection.

I guess its virtually impossible to maintain the current underpass while building an overpass overhead. They probably want to demolish the underpass and lower the highway FIRST, so they don't have to build the new overpass extra high.

That's correct. They were originally going with the curved route so they didn't have to demolish the overpass, but they will have a full close for 12 weeks for the work that can't be done while keeping the underpass open.

They will temporarily open up Taft Ave for easier access to WestBound Freeway travelers, which goes under the #1 at start of the Port Mann bridge, though. They're doing it in phases, but I hope they have a plan to fix the West end of UNited Blvd properly, instead of band-aiding it.

[The Lonely Tanner]

If we invested heavily in our transit system, it would take enough cars off the road to free them up for what they're really for: the movement of goods. Then it's just general maintience that must be carried out, such as replacing the PMB or Pautello.

[Spork]

Let's go back to basics. What do we want to encourage? Density or sprawl? Transit supports density and roads/highways support sprawl. With greater density, we may not even need roads (see the post on the car-free city). With greater sprawl, all we need are roads, as no other transportation option is fast enough, convenient enough, or financially feasible (don't quote me on that last one, as I have no idea how much road building costs - surely less per km than transit).

A balance between the two (density and sprawl) means a balance between roads and transit.

Density means green (cars produce something like 30% of all CO2), sprawl means not-green, no matter how hard you argue that hybrid/electric/hydrogen/solar/wind powered cars are going to save us.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by CrazyCommute

And this attitude, ladies and gentlemen, is why we're driving around on pathetic donkey trails that were already outdated 50 years ago.

I agree

why don't also just let the commuters carry boxes around on their laps off the ships coming into port since the ships arriving don't need to get sent out by truck which require roads and a decent system to move the goods about the country

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by The Lonely Tanner

If we invested heavily in our transit system, it would take enough cars off the road to free them up for what they're really for: the movement of goods. Then it's just general maintience that must be carried out, such as replacing the PMB or Pautello.

Too bad that real life doesnt support your argument. In these arguments I always like to go back to a city im very familiar with that has amazing public transit network, Prague. Guess what the amount of highway infrastructure their building is mind boggling, two city ring roads, and countless other road improvements and tunnels and viaducts throughout the city. Not to mention the city ring roads consists of dozens and dozens of km of tunnels and viaducts. This is a city thats much smaller than Vancouver and has a amazing transit network(imo one of the best in the world for a city its size). And it already has a better highway network than Vancouver, and the highway network is just getting better.
You cant have a COMPETITIVE city without adequate road infrastructure.

[DKaz]

When does King Edward officially close then? That's going to — for businesses south of Hwy 1!

[cornholio]

Here is something I wish they did in the valley and along other stretches such as by Burnaby lake and Brunett creek etc. Eco bridges!
This pic is of one of the outer city ring roads in Prague with the eco bridges scattered around that allow animals and people to cross over natural crossings.

Here is a link to a bunch of photos of the outer ring road under construction around Praguehttp://foto.ceskedalnice.cz/vase-foto/090519-R1/

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by DKaz

When does King Edward officially close then? That's going to — for businesses south of Hwy 1!

I thought it was going to remain open as the new overpass will be west of the current underpass. It wont close until the new overpass is built...that is unless there were changes made to the planned.

edit: So I guess they chose option 2 then? I always thought option 1 was already chosen.
http://www.coquitlam.ca/Residents/Transi...ass+Project/Background+and+Alignment.htm

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by DKaz

When does King Edward officially close then? That's going to — for businesses south of Hwy 1!

is it closing? i thought they were going to build the overpass further west?

if they don't how do they demolish the hwy #1 over pass in that area?

the overpass is going to the west of winners isn't it? that PDF doesn't show the new configuration

[DKaz]

Direct link to approved option of straight overpass: http://www.coquitlam.ca/NR/rdonlyres/93E...607F5FF/92851/kingEd_straight_align1.pdf

I guess Phase 1 would be to close the underpass and build S curves around the existing underpass for Hwy 1 to continue operation, then demolish the underpass and flatten/lower Hwy 1 and return Hwy 1 to its original alignment and realign Wooldridge.

Phase 2 would be to build the overpass which would involve night closures of Hwy 1 when necessary.

I don't see how they can get all this work done in 12 weeks.

Though I think Hwy 1 along that entire stretch could use some flattening/fixing. Things have settled quite a bit in the past 50 years resulting in a bumpy stretch of highway.

[SpongeG]

thats a lot of work i wonder why they would change from the other plan - it seemed less complicated

if they could only open that little bridge to be better and make for better traffic flow into and through new west

[DKaz]

I think Phase 1 would've happened either way because of the desire to flatten that stretch of Hwy 1 but with Option 1, King Edward St. would not have to shut down for 12 weeks.

[SpongeG]

its pretty easy to get around if you are in the area and used to it - i know many people get impatient with the trains and turn around or use new west