Port Mann/Highway 1 Improvements | Completed

[DKaz]

Yes direct URLs! I want to download all the images and at project end do a timelapse, maybe one of Grandview and one of Cape Horn.

[zivan56]

^^ Yep, I was planning to do the same thing...better than HD quality time lapse of construction! Hopefully they don't take them down before.

[DKaz]

We should start grabbing all the photos NOW! Kinda have to play catchup right now but I might be able to make a Mac Automator script to automatically download everything so far.

[Stingray2004]

Here's a link to a time-lapse to date of the PMB:

http://www.joconl.com/article/id40250

[agrant]

Pretty uneventful, but thanks.

[DKaz]

It's not well done. I'm thinking our initiative is to do something that's a lot nicer and smoother visually, and in HD.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by zivan56

For those who don't know: If you want to see high res images of any HWY 1 webcams, just press the "print" icon and a new window will come up. Then, right click on the image and either select "copy" or "copy url." That will either give you the link to the full resolution image or copy it to your clipboard.
If you look at the URL, you can change it to get high res images from back in time by changing the month/day/hour.

Thanks.
Usually I go the the "e-mail" icon, and "save" locally, then crop the pic and upload it to imageshack.
Irritatingly, the BC Place webcams don't allow you to do that - they only have the twitter, facebook or other third party links to send the pics.

[metroXpress]

Took this the other day:

[twoNeurons]

They've built a lot of the Grandview HOV on-ramp over the weekend.

[Metro-One]

I am just excited to see the girders go up for the #7 westbound to #1 eastbound fly over ramp at the Cape Horn interchange. That is going to be the most impressive fly over in al of western Canada. I know there are a few long fly overs in Alberta, but for some reason they are all built using land fill, with only short elevated spans above the other roadways, which completely looses their effect to me.

This one is finally completely elevated from start to finish.

[renthefinn]

Originally Posted by MechMike

Source to your local knowledge and information please?

That sounds completely absurd considering we live in a region prone to a major earthquake some time in the future.

MeckMike I work in the geotechnical engineering field.

Regarding the GEB, a specialized team of 18 crane cable drivers, engineers, etc. were brought over from Germany specifically for the pile boring/foundation work. As a matter of fact, one of these individuals either posted on here or on another site about that work and was from Düsseldorf, Germany. I recall him stating that their specialized team moves world-wide for their foundation work.

Stingray, the German company that constructed the foundations for GEB used local knowledge and expertise to design the foundations. We live in an exciting area for geotechnical engineering challenges, like most deltaic areas in the world, and we have plenty of local knowledge and experience, and internationally recognized professionals, that thrive in these types of challenges. So yes, like you say some specialized construction technique and expertise was from outside, I'd like to clarify, most of it was local.

[DKaz]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

I am just excited to see the girders go up for the #7 westbound to #1 eastbound fly over ramp at the Cape Horn interchange. That is going to be the most impressive fly over in al of western Canada. I know there are a few long fly overs in Alberta, but for some reason they are all built using land fill, with only short elevated spans above the other roadways, which completely looses their effect to me.

This one is finally completely elevated from start to finish.

Tell me about it, this angle looks best.



I wonder if there is any particular ramp they're planning to open first. They can't open the new 7 WB to 1 EB until the old 1 to 7 is moved (1 WB to 7 EB, 1 WB to 7 WB, 1 EB to 7 EB).

[Windex]

Originally Posted by DKaz

The bridges haven't collapsed in the last 25 years, I think it's safe to say that they're safe.

Yeah, but a small structural deficiency when the bridge was originally built isn't going to cause the bridge to collapse right away. It could take years of use, freeze-thaw cycles and general stresses before anything came of it. On the other hand, I'm not going to lose any sleep about having to cross any bridges in the area.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

Nope. It's called building things to a modern standard.

Ontario builds it's freeways to a 150 km/h design speed. 150 km/h! I'm assuming Alberta is up there too. You're lucky if you get a 100 km/h design speed in BC for anything. Honestly, the highway designs here are so piss-poor. Even Gateway isn't impressing me that much, especially since it's becoming evident that cutbacks are starting to show up.

lol...I have to call this out, even though it's a few pages old.

Nothing in Canada is built to 150km/h design speed. Talk about hyperbole. It would be the biggest waste of money, ever. The following Canadian roads are the only ones built to the maximum design speed employed on any road in North America - 130km/h:
- Highway 5 in BC from Kamloops to 5km from the terminus at Hope
- Highway 97c in BC from Drought Hill to Highway 5A intersection
- Highway 1 in Alberta/Sakskatchewan from Canmore to the Manitoba Border - excluding inside Calgary, Strathmore, Medicine Hat, and Regina.
- Highway 2 in Alberta in sections built in the last 10-15 years outside City limits. (For example, North and South of Calgary City Limits)
- Highway 401 in newer sections built in the last 20 years.

Again, anything more than 130km/h design speed is an incredible waste of money and land. 110km/h design speed is just fine in any other case than a fully access controlled high-speed freeway. Before you come back and mention Texas and their 130km/h speed limit, just know that the speed limit and the design speed there are the same. Not ideal but they like to speed there.

[go_leafs_go02]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

lol...I have to call this out, even though it's a few pages old.

Nothing in Canada is built to 150km/h design speed. Talk about hyperbole. It would be the biggest waste of money, ever. The following Canadian roads are examples of the maximum design speed employed on any road in North America - 130km/h:
- Highway 5 in BC from Kamloops to 5km from the terminus at Hope
- Highway 97c in BC from Drought Hill to Highway 5A intersection
- Highway 1 in Alberta/Sakskatchewan from Canmore to the Manitoba Border - excluding inside Calgary, Strathmore, Medicine Hat, and Regina.
- Highway 2 in Alberta in sections built in the last 10-15 years outside City limits. (For example, North and South of Calgary City Limits)
- Highway 401 in newer sections built in the last 20 years.

Again, anything more than 130km/h design speed is an incredible waste of money. 110km/h design speed is just fine in any other case than a fully access controlled high-speed freeway.

You are right on the 130 km/h design speed. I heard 150 km/h once upon a time, and investigated the matter. 150 km/h is not the design speed.

Planning for 130 km/h isn't that much more expensive if you're dealing with relatively flat/rolling topography.

I'm talking about highway designs in Metro Vancouver. They're horribly designed when there is proper ROW available in the gist to accommodate a higher design speed.

[Mininari]

Originally Posted by Windex

Yeah, but a small structural deficiency when the bridge was originally built isn't going to cause the bridge to collapse right away. It could take years of use, freeze-thaw cycles and general stresses before anything came of it. On the other hand, I'm not going to lose any sleep about having to cross any bridges in the area.

I-35 Bridge collapse in Minneapolis?

[Stingray2004]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

The following Canadian roads are the only ones built to the maximum design speed employed on any road in North America - 130km/h:
- Highway 5 in BC from Kamloops to 5km from the terminus at Hope

Yeah, I still have a Van Sun newspaper article, which I cut out when I was a kid, quoting MoT's then lead project engineer, Gregg Singer, that the Coquihalla had an 85 mile/hour design speed (don't know why he didn't quote same in metric).

An example of the cost differential between a 4-lane, freeway standard, 90 km/hr design speed and a 110 km/hr design speed is the 7.5 km Three Valley Gap section of Hwy 1 in eastern BC.

Alignment 1:

90 km/hr design speed: $100 million (1993 dollars)
110 km/hr design speed: $110 million (")

Alignment 2:

90 km/hr design speed: $107 million (1993 dollars)
110 km/hr design speed: $117 million (")

A 10% cost differential between the two design speeds along that segment.

Certainly would have liked to have seen a 100 km/hr design speed for the S2S highway (as opposed to the 80 km/hr used between HSB abd Squamish).

Again, would also have liked to have seen a 100 km/hr+ design speed for the SFPR (as opposed to the 80 km/hr design speed - albeit the section east of the Pattullo will be designed at 90 km/hr).

[Spoolmak]

Nothing in BC would be a safe design speed of 150 even if it was possible. And only a few 130km/h design speed just because there are way too many turns and curves in the highways. And especially since the highways are always jampacked with newbies from alberta, it makes the highways even more dangerous

[Stingray2004]

Still part of Gateway in eastern BC - nothin' like the sight of freshly paved 4-lane expressway standard highway along the old Kicking Horse Canyon goat trail:







Source: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/kickinghorse/index.htm

[Zassk]

I'm torn, because I love the high design speed of the Coquihalla, but on the other hand, if it had been built to more modest specifications, the province could probably have afforded to build twice as much freeway in the 25 years since. Remember that the next time you are stuck on those awful 2-lane stretches on either side of Salmon Arm...