Calgary Stoney Trail [Ring Road]

Almost as if someone is reading this thread. A bunch of signs are covered that weren't before, that little grammatical error was fixed on one of the signs, and a new sign explaining the confusion for WB traffic at Sun Valley/Chaparral well in advance.

EB Glenmore







Looking north at the NB-EB bridge over the EB mainline lanes.




NB 52 St just before the bridge


WB 22X before 88 St


WB mainline Stoney before 52 St. NB lanes on the bridge itself are paved, but the approaches need more fill and grading. They're not far off though. It'll be open in a week maybe? 10 days?




The first of 2 bridges for the EB-NB flyover, I love how long this bridge is.



McKenzie/Cranston


McKenzie/Cranston

[joe498]

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/09/02/cal...ad-nears-finish-line-for-october-opening

Good news.

Figured they were good once I saw pretty much nothing going on over the long weekend.

“courteous and productive” discussions are ongoing with the Tsuu T’ina First Nation

[libtard]

Acey

[pulkit10]

Well, don't think they'll open it all up on the 1st. It'll be more of a "open road with ongoing construction/finishing".

Fine by me though. I still get to avoid Deerfoot for those NE commutes...

I think that's the general consensus, that work will be on-going long after the 1st, but I was beginning to doubt that all the new roadways would actually be open in time.

[Mazrim]

Thanks for the pictures, Acey. I can't help but wonder what their thought process was with cutting so many of the signs slightly smaller....to save a few bucks? It looks so bad on signs like that overhead at 52nd Street. You're barely saving any money but now it just looks disjointed and will be harder to read if there is light coming between the panels (especially street lights at night behind the panels).

Then they start cramming more stuff into these smaller panels and it all suffers. And then on the flipside you get this enormously wide Lane Ends sign at the 17th Avenue exit? It's as big as the through panel beside it!

Also, they put the cardinal direction over 17th Avenue on that intersection picture you took, but the rest are okay. It can be fixed even now, believe me!

[5seconds]

The SE contract calls for October 1 to be the 'Traffic Availability' date, when cars can safely use the road and all interchanges etc. There is also 'Construction Completion' when everything is totally finished.

The contractor has 30 days following Traffic Availability to get a plan and timeline together for the Construction Completion, that the Province gets to approve. It then has a year to finish before the Province can elect to do the work itself, if it comes to that.

[H.E.Pennypacker]

Originally Posted by Acey

Figured they were good once I saw pretty much nothing going on over the long weekend.

“courteous and productive” discussions are ongoing with the Tsuu T’ina First Nation

I'd prefer "hostile but finalized"

Originally Posted by 5seconds

It then has a year to finish before the Province can elect to do the work itself, if it comes to that.

Good lord, I didn't realize they had that long to finish. Plenty of 80 zones to come in the spring, I imagine... while they finish up.

[H.E.Pennypacker]

Originally Posted by Acey

Good lord, I didn't realize they had that long to finish. Plenty of 80 zones to come in the spring, I imagine... while they finish up.

Still better than traffic on Deerfoot ... Excited to see this leg open, although I personally won't use it as much unless I have to venture to the deep south in rush hour

[joe498]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/09/04/calgary-se-ring-road-completion-tr.html

Highlight:

Plans for the southwest portion of the ring road — which would go through Tsuu T’ina territory at the western edge of Calgary — have been held up while the province tries to negotiate an agreement with the First Nation.

"There's only done and not done. And currently we're in the not done condition," said Transportation Minister Ric McIver last month when describing the negotiations.

[You Need A Thneed]

This is how I expect it to be as of Oct 1 (no insider knowledge, just my personal observations)

17th Ave SE: Fully operational, 84th Street Intersection might not be moved east yet.

Peigan Trail: Fully operational, may still be really short weaving zones between Stoney and 84th Street.

61st Ave Flyover: will not be open - though I believe that the uncompleted work may be the city's responsibility, not Chinook Infrastructure's.

Glenmore Trail: All movements will be open, some slight detouring may still be in place along Glenmore - specifically east of Stoney.

114th Ave: Fully Operational

22x/88th St: Fully Operational

52nd Street: May not have all ramps open, may still be lights along the mainline, and the current access ramp may still be in operation.

Deerfoot Trail: Not all final ramps will be open. There may still be lights along Mainline Stoney. Ramps that will be open may still have slight detours or temporary guardrails.

Cranston/McKenzie Lake: Access to NB Deerfoot may not yet be complete.

Chapparal/Sun Valley: I haven't driven by this one really, I have no idea where it's at. I imagine it should be fully operational.

Cranston Ave/Seton: May still be on temporary ramps to NB Deerfoot/EB 22x. And SB Deerfoot ramp to the interchange may not be on it's final alignment.

All along the whole route there is finish grading and landscaping/seeding to be done, which will likely be done next spring.

[5seconds]

Originally Posted by joe498

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/09/04/calgary-se-ring-road-completion-tr.html

Highlight:

All credit to McIver in answering in the most reasonable way while at the same time not being able to really say anything about the progress. He must get that question all the time!

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

This is how I expect it to be as of Oct 1 (no insider knowledge, just my personal observations)
Chapparal/Sun Valley: I haven't driven by this one really, I have no idea where it's at. I imagine it should be fully operational.

I agree. This is the last bridge they started on, but they had a lot of the ramp work done before the flyover construction started. It should be pretty close to being ready in time.

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I can't help but wonder what their thought process was with cutting so many of the signs slightly smaller....to save a few bucks?

Pretty much every new gantry has a sign that has me wondering, "why the heck would they do it like that?!"

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

Chapparal/Sun Valley: I haven't driven by this one really, I have no idea where it's at.  I imagine it should be fully operational.

I saw it last week, it's at about the same stage as Cranston/McKenzie... which is to say "...that'll be a functioning interchange 27 days from now?!"

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

52nd Street: May not have all ramps open, may still be lights along the mainline, and the current access ramp may still be in operation.

Deerfoot Trail: Not all final ramps will be open. There may still be lights along Mainline Stoney. Ramps that will be open may still have slight detours or temporary guardrails.

Dunno about these 2... they're really close on 52 St. When they started digging at the start of August they said they wanted the whole interchange open before school starts. That obviously didn't happen, but they haven't really been held up by weather so I doubt they underestimated a 4 week project by a full 100%.

One thing interesting about Deerfoot is that McIver and whoever else had said the EB-NB flyover was going to open well ahead of the others and function, in some capacity, as a detour. I'm not sure why, but that plan went completely out the window. In any event, if the EB-NB bridges aren't done that wouldn't be catastrophic. We could survive without the NB-EB bridge as well. The existing detour —, but can handle the load. Like I said before, the only really ugly scenario will be if they open the whole route and the WB-SB bridges aren't done. It'll create an absolute nightmare. My fear is that they're willing to trade the late fees for said nightmare.

In the CBC article, it's almost as if Keating is suggesting some Stoney money be spent on Deerfoot... he's got a point...

They're going on Deerfoot because they have to go to the centre or to the far northwest and there is no other way at this point,” he said.

Meanwhile in the NW, WB Stoney just before Beddington will be down to 1 lane tomorrow morning as they start digging to widen the bridge over the creek to 3 lanes from 2.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Acey

One thing interesting about Deerfoot is that McIver and whoever else had said the EB-NB flyover was going to open well ahead of the others and function, in some capacity, as a detour. I'm not sure why, but that plan went completely out the window. In any event, if the EB-NB bridges aren't done that wouldn't be catastrophic. We could survive without the NB-EB bridge as well. The existing detour —, but can handle the load. Like I said before, the only really ugly scenario will be if they open the whole route and the WB-SB bridges aren't done. It'll create an absolute nightmare. My fear is that they're willing to trade the late fees for said nightmare.

I drove this today.

There is zero chance any of this will be ready in 3 weeks. All of the carpentry/forms for the barricades/curbing along the side is still in place. They haven't even started compacting the approaches yet on either movement.

Mainline Stoney might be in service, but I think we will all be disappointed in what 'completion' looks like,

I wonder if they tried to work out something with the province. Like hey... we're done all this, but if we open this part without 22X/Deerfoot these detours are gonna be hell on earth. No late fees, mmkay?!

More realistically, this was the plan all along, given that they said they've caught up to the original timeline. We've suffered through 40 months of construction, what's a few more for the route to fully open with the safety of the interchanges being built? I don't get it. The more you look at the state they're in now and think about the order of operations, you realize how bad they got screwed over having to build detours and keep — open.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Acey

The more you look at the state they're in now and think about the order of operations, you realize how bad they got screwed over having to build detours and keep — open.

The more I think about this, the more I think the opening day is going to be the north/south stretch of Stoney trail being open between 22x and the existing NE Stoney.

I think it's remarkable how well they have maintained service with minimal disruption to the operating roads (22x and Deerfoot). Understand that 84th and access into some of the SE industrial areas was challenging, but by and large you could get to where you needed to go.

The biggest complaint I heard was that the signage was confusing/misleading.

The Northeast Henday/Yellowhead interchange is the biggest gongshow I have ever had the misfortune in dealing with. Take 22x/Deerfoot, thrown in a railway and 20 large oil and gas pipelines and you get a sense of the complexity.

That will be one of the most complex interchanges in Canada when it's done. Takes a minute to decipher it, looking at the plans. I like how, due to obstacles, they're forced to do the NB-WB and SB-EB ramps like this with the flyover ramps going right over the middle, as opposed to AB Trans' go-to cloverstack design where they swing out wide:



Makes for more impressive bridge structures.