Valley of Dreams - an article about the River Valley Alliance plans

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Avenue magazine article on River Valley Alliance plans:

http://www.avenueedmonton.com/articl...lley-of-dreams

p.s. I love the idea of a man-made canal through Rossdale Flats.

[Coldrsx]

canal stupid

the rest i like

[ue]

^I agree. Unless the canals were built for transportation methods originally like Venice, Ottawa, or Amsterdam, they look a little tacky (Oklahoma City, Omaha, ...). They're alright but they don't feel authentic.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

I dunno...if a river diversion in the form of a canal allows for more riverfront type development without impacting the main river, I'd say go for it.

[itom 987]

A weir needs to be built on the river first.

[SHOFEAR]

Is the vacant land around rossdale owned by the city or privately held?

[sdimedru]

Originally Posted by itom 987

A weir needs to be built on the river first.

I'm not familiar with the topic, but can a weir be built on a river that freezes over?

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by SHOFEAR

Is the vacant land around rossdale owned by the city or privately held?

both, but the city holds a lot of it still

[0773|=\]

Canal might have the potential to be tacky, but if it can be used for skating in the wintertime, awesome. Do it.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by sdimedru

I'm not familiar with the topic, but can a weir be built on a river that freezes over?

I think so, because both the South Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and the Bow in Calgary have one, and they both fully freeze over I'm guessing.

[sdimedru]

hmm, I thought the Bow never completely froze over.... but no idea about the SSR... I'll do some lookin around now that I'm curious.

[Airboy]

The ice thickness is Edmonton is quite substantial but should not affect a weir. The one factor that has been brought up in previous discussions regarding a weir is the amount of silt in the river at given times. (The reason the river is brown in the spring). That and the unpredictability of the river levels, which can rise 12 ft in a few hours. During high water times there is also incredibly amounts of debris being flushed down river. I myself would love a weir but after 30 years on the river I can’t see one with out a lot of maintenance issues.

Now if we could open Whitemud creek to skating again (late 60’s early 70’s Whitemud park Ski hill to Rainbow Valley).

[Airboy]

Any one interested in the rivers flow rate. Here is the site I use. Use the figure after you open the North Sask River Basin.


http://www.environment.alberta.ca/ap...t.aspx?Basin=4

[canucklehead2]

Not too sure if I'm crazy about a weir (and as I think the article mentions it's been proposed in the past) but I am happy that there are people thinking about the river valley 20, 30, 40 years hence. The valley IS easily the most impressive and unique aspect about Edmonton and we should be cherishing it and planning for it's long-term use as much as possible.

For years I talk about it swung too wildly between intensive development (infilling the 'dale communities) and pure park preservation but I think we're starting to find the right balance of nature and human activity. We do however need to make the valley much more accessible to the non-mobile (children, the elderly, the handicapped) than it is now... With the exception of the Shaw Centre and a bit of round-about pathways much of it feels off limits to these groups. Now I'm not suggesting we install escalators every block but we do need to be aware that travel to the area is currently difficult for a larger swath of the population that could, nay should be enjoying it!

That and I think we need to develop a river taxi/gondola network to bring people from the different parks to downtown and vice versa. And more cultural/climatized venues ala the Hawrelak Ampitheatre... Just think if there were a half dozen concert/theatre venues scattered across the valley from Tewilligar to Rundle that could attract 500-1000 people nightly and were available by water taxi... That would be a total game-changer...

[Hallsy's Toupee]

The canal idea was brought up again on CTV News tonight.
They brought up comparisons to Rideau Canal in Ottawa and the River Walk in San Antonio.

See video link on right
http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/lo...e&s_name=graph

[Hallsy's Toupee]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/techn...829/story.html

[Xelebes]

If there's going to be a canal, it's going to be between the North Saskatchewan and Athabasca River, so we can move heavy cokers by barge.

[CMD UW]

I actually like the canal idea. I think they should explore this option further.

[Coldrsx]

Interesting idea, but with so many projects and little funds, pass.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Interesting idea, but with so many projects and little funds, pass.

we should be embrassing "interesting ideas", not passing on them. my concern would be that it is perhaps not grand enough rather than being too much to consider. being "as wide as a two-lane road, but dug down about two storeys below ground level so it’s at the same elevation as the river that would feed it" might be one of our too-typical edmonton "going half way instead of really doing it right"... "two lanes wide and two stories deep might not be attractive enough for it to be what it should be. if we need some locks at each end to raise it above what is a fluctuating river level anyway so be it. and if needs to be 80 feet wide instead of 25 so be it as well. that way it could take the dragon boats as well as the gondolas or be readily widened out at one or two locations for some tournament pond hockey etc.). there is no shortage of places for good fill and the price of the water to fill it is pretty cheap (and if it's not as far down then the banks would be less expensive - possibly by enough to even pay for the locks)...