[St. John's] Transport development (Highways, Airport, and Public Transit)

[J_Murphy]

Get used to airport construction......for the next 6 years. I just hope by that time, another expansion isn't warranted.

The main terminal building at St. John’s International Airport Authority will become a construction zone beginning in late April or early May, remaining simultaneously open and under construction through at least 2020.

According to the airport’s director of community relations, Marie Manning, the work will not interfere with the areas used by passengers coming and going, but will instead be focused on either end of the main terminal.

The construction is part of the $150-million airport expansion announced in February 2011, when the airport issued a 10-year capital plan, laying out improvements to virtually all areas of the airport’s property.

Manning could not say if the overall project was on time or on budget, but there are indications of both delays and added costs.

“Our director of infrastructure and planning is still working through everything to finalize the numbers, the dates, the schedules,” Manning said. “We’re hoping to have it all finalized in a couple of weeks.”



Expansion to date

The airport’s current facilities are designed to accommodate about 900,000 passengers a year. Passenger numbers at St. John’s International reached nearly 1.5 million in 2012 and are expected to increase to 1.9 million by 2020.

As a result, since 2011, the airport authority has moved ahead with the construction of a ramp services building of roughly 30,000 square feet, to support cargo service; the apron at the terminal building has been expanded, to allow an extra five planes to park overnight; passenger bridges connecting the main terminal to arriving planes have been overhauled; and spaces have been added to long-term parking.

On Dec. 3, 2013, a new access road to the airport’s main terminal — the World Parkway — was opened.

However, one of the toughest pieces of the overall project, in terms of customer service and cost, is yet to begin. That expansion to the main terminal building is subdivided into two parts, the East Expansion and West Expansion.

Contracts are in the process of being let for the East Expansion, with an estimated total cost of $55 million, according to documents obtained by The Telegram.

Changes will include the movement of pre-board screening to the first floor of the building, extensions to the check-in counter, added spaces for food and beverage sales and two additional flight gates.

Additions more noticeable behind the scenes will include a new loading dock and larger goods storage area; an increase in the size of passenger hold area for security; and a renovated baggage screening area.

“The intent is a facility that leaves a positive and memorable impression while providing a calm and relaxing environment for the customers of the (airport authority),” the documents state.

Work will start this spring and continue to 2017.

That timeline indicates the overall airport project is behind schedule, as a 10-year capital plan from 2011 pegged the East Expansion to be completed in 2015 — two years earlier than the current timeline.

In September 2013, Keith Collins, the airport authority’s president and CEO, suggested to The Telegram a 10-month strike by 85 airport maintenance workers had set construction back. That strike ended July 2013.

Other potential factors for the change in timeline have yet to be set out by the airport authority.



More to come

The East Expansion for the main terminal building totals about 13,500 square metres. The Telegram has yet to obtain any cost estimate or timeline on the smaller West Expansion, around the cargo and arrivals side of the building, estimated at 6,700-7,500 square metres.

In the three years since the overall airport expansion was first revealed, one piece — a plan for rapid development of 270 acres of land around the airport — has changed.

The concept was to create an airport business park, leading the airport to propose a partnership with the City of St. John’s, to gather the funds to service the area with basic amenities like water and sewer. According to St. John’s Mayor Dennis O’Keefe, the city decided not to make the required up-front investment in the industrial park, leaving the cost to be taken on by the airport authority and private enterprise.

A city staffer stated an application for the business park has not been filed with the city to date.

At the same time, O’Keefe said he considers the overall expansion of the airport an important project.

“To be honest, I look upon the airport as being one of the pillars of the infrastructure, the economic infrastructure, of the city and of Newfoundland and Labrador,” he said, noting the City of St. John’s has helped with a $1-million contribution to a piece of work already completed.

In terms of future updates, O’Keefe was anxious to hear more about when a new instrument landing system, to allow more planes to land in foggier weather, might be installed.

The entire airport expansion is being paid for through an airport improvement fee of $20 per person, paid by departing passengers.

http://www.thetelegram.com/Business/...ruction-zone/1

[ThisIsJustePourDire]

I found this website, looks like the new website for SJIAA?

http://http://beta2.voicecms.ca/sjiaa/

Enjoy!

[jjavman]

[QUOTE=ThisIsJustePourDire;6449538]I found this website, looks like the new website for SJIAA?

http://http://beta2.voicecms.ca/sjiaa/

Enjoy!

NOW CHANGED !!!

Changed to http://beta.voicecms.ca/sjiaa/

[PoscStudent]

The airport's logo sucks.

[ajcoffey]

CanadianNorth Flying into St. John's.



Canadian North announced today a seasonal, non-stop flight service between Iqaluit and Halifax, with same-plane service to St John’s — effective June 20.

The airline says that continued growth of northern travellers on Canadian North’s scheduled passenger and cargo services has created new opportunities for expansion.

In addition to the Iqaluit to Halifax and St John’s flight, there is a reintroduction of a new cargo aircraft from Ottawa to Iqaluit, and the reinstatement of a free luggage allowance of two bags at 70 lbs each for all jet passengers.

“Offering additional flights to Iqaluit brings greater access for investment, business travel, tourism and freight, enabling continued economic development across Nunavut,” Steve Hankirk, President at Canadian North, said in a news release.

“These changes represent our renewed commitment to the people and prosperity of the north.”

Canadian North will utilize the Boeing 737-300 aircraft, configured with 136 seats, to serve the new Iqaluit to Halifax and St John’s routing that will operate every Friday from June 20 to Sept. 5 at the following schedule:

• Flight 400 departs St. John’s to Halifax at 12:00 arriving at 13:15;

• Flight 400 departs Halifax to Iqaluit at 14:00 arriving at 16:15;

• Flight 401 departs Iqaluit to Halifax at 17:15 arriving at 21:30;

• Flight 401 departs Halifax to St. John’s at 22:15 arriving at 00:25.

The airline says that, depending on the level of support for the new service, flights could be expanded or the season extended.

Flights and introductory pricing are available for booking online at www.canadiannorth.com, through a travel agent, or at 1-800-661-1505.


http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Loca...x-to-Iqaluit/1

[AnUrbanLife]

Hey all, I thought this was interesting. From a CBC article listing how much money St. John's spends on snowclearing and how much equipment it has at its disposal.

One little tidbit I found of note was the mention that the city has added over 300 lane km of new roads in the last 16 years, that's telling.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...hn-s-1.2570189

Cheers

[AnUrbanLife]

Since I'm on the snowclearing, topic must be the recent weather, here's another article I found interesting:

It's from spacing.ca It details sidewalk snowclearing in Atlantic Canadian Cities.

http://spacing.ca/atlantic/2013/12/1...nadian-cities/

[Horsell]

After the way things have gone this winter with the early snow and the various snow/rain/snow events in February and now March, this has been a very difficult year on snow clearing.

The City needs to take a long hard look at how and where it removes snow and clears sidewalks. I would even suggest a public forum to get feedback and to see if anyone has any better ideas how to do what needs to be done.

To see from the CBC infographic that the volume of streets has increased 30% yet the budget has more than doubled since 1996 seems to point to some problems, even with inflation factored in.

[rthomasd]

The mayor keeps touting how well the city is doing by referencing the snow clearing budget and standards. But I find these standards to be troublesome, like who decided that the storm standard is 25 cm and clearing in 12 hours (why not 8 or 10). The snowclearing effort doesn't seem to change if it's 5 cm or 25 cm. For me in Cowan Heights, it's useless to clean the driveway till the plow comes by for the third time, meanwhile near-by side-streets haven't seen the plow once in that time.

It would be useful to know what the city's labour standards are, when do the shifts start/end, where were the plows yesterday morning? The mayor says each route is about 30 lane-km, surely each street on the route should get serviced more than once in 12 hours?

The weekly snow clearing report to council says the budget is $ 16 M in three categories,
$ 5.3 M for Personal services (mostly labor, aren't most of these people permanent?)
$ 6.5 M for Contractual Services
$ 3.3 M for Supplies ( $ 3.1 M for salt/sand)
Under contractual it shows $ 4.8 M for fleet services of which only $ 50,000 has been spent. So what is this item, accounting for about 1/3 of the whole budget?

So, while the city claims $ 16 M for snowclearing, it's really $ 11 M ?

[ThisIsJustePourDire]

I thought this website would be cool to share. SJIAA has developed a "wish list" for routes that they would like to see in the future. They are hoping to increase service to London and Montreal and also expand into more cities in Europe (Aberdeen, Oslo, Frankfurt).

http://www.therouteshop.com/profiles...ional-airport/

And also,
I am doing the History of St. John's Airport for my grade eight Heritage Fair project, and I recently interviewed the Director of Operations. He was telling me that they are trying to bring back the Moncton flight, but not with Pascan, but Air Canada. Also they are trying to work on getting the LHR flight all year and also trying to get a seasonal flight to Frankfurt on airlines like Condor, Thomas Cook, etc.

[jeddy1989]

Originally Posted by ThisIsJustePourDire

I thought this website would be cool to share. SJIAA has developed a "wish list" for routes that they would like to see in the future. They are hoping to increase service to London and Montreal and also expand into more cities in Europe (Aberdeen, Oslo, Frankfurt).

http://www.therouteshop.com/profiles...ional-airport/

And also,
I am doing the History of St. John's Airport for my grade eight Heritage Fair project, and I recently interviewed the Director of Operations. He was telling me that they are trying to bring back the Moncton flight, but not with Pascan, but Air Canada. Also they are trying to work on getting the LHR flight all year and also trying to get a seasonal flight to Frankfurt on airlines like Condor, Thomas Cook, etc.

Great find!

[J_Murphy]

http://www.vocm.com/newsarticle.asp?...44665&latest=1

The provincial government has announced plans to extend the Robert E. Howlett Memorial Drive, commonly known as the Goulds Bypass all the way to Bay Bulls. The planned route will begin at the current end of the highway at the intersection with the Goulds Main Road, and will continue south to Bay Bulls. The nearly 10 km stretch of highway will run parallel to the current Southern Shore Highway.



The announcement was made this morning in Bay Bulls. Tenders have yet to be called, but it's hoped that construction will get underway sometime this year.

[Townie709]

I'd much rather them finish the gushue highway before they begin another project. They need to finish what thy start instead of half assing a bunch of highway projects and cause them to take multiple years longer than expected and cost twice as much!

[J_Murphy]

Originally Posted by Townie709

I'd much rather them finish the gushue highway before they begin another project. They need to finish what thy start instead of half assing a bunch of highway projects and cause them to take multiple years longer than expected and cost twice as much!

Agreed. I'm curious to know the need for this instead of just widening the road that is there now. I would like to see the proposed route of it...

[Horsell]

While it is only a plan to do some clearing I have to agree with Townie709 that they should finish the Team Gushue part first before starting work on the other end of the road. There is no good excuse, other than money, that the TGH shouldn't be completed to at least Topsail Rd this construction season. But that's not going to happen, unfortunately.

[mrjanejacobs]

I am opposed to this project.

Extending high-speed routes further into the suburbs is, perhaps, the main cause of urban sprawl... Bay Bulls will become a much more attractive location for developers with this news.

[ConundrumNL]

Originally Posted by mrjanejacobs

I am opposed to this project.

Extending high-speed routes further into the suburbs is, perhaps, the main cause of urban sprawl... Bay Bulls will become a much more attractive location for developers with this news.

I think safety may a big factor in the decision to build this extension. Route 10 around Bay Bulls Big Pond can become very dangerous in the winter. Big Pond is also a water supply for the St. John's area, and Route 10 is pretty tight to it's shore line, increasing the risk to the water supply.

I'm thinking the Route 3 extension will take a wider track around the pond, and the majority of traffic heading down the shore will take that.

[Horsell]

No doubt it is a great idea to build this road, especially with the traffic generated by offshore services in Bay Bulls, the only problem is that this is, realistically, a 10 year project at the pace things go around here.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by mrjanejacobs

I am opposed to this project.

Extending high-speed routes further into the suburbs is, perhaps, the main cause of urban sprawl... Bay Bulls will become a much more attractive location for developers with this news.

I actually agree with this, but at the same time it's like a double-edged sword.

The development in the Bay Bulls area right now is actually crazy (I had no idea until recently how many people were choosing to live there), with a lot of those people commuting back and forth from St. John's to work. The highway between there and the city at the moment isn't sufficient to support the travelling population, yet if you do expand the highway you're opening up for even more development and sprawl. I'm not sure there's a real way to win in this situation.

[mrjanejacobs]

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

I actually agree with this, but at the same time it's like a double-edged sword.

The development in the Bay Bulls area right now is actually crazy (I had no idea until recently how many people were choosing to live there), with a lot of those people commuting back and forth from St. John's to work. The highway between there and the city at the moment isn't sufficient to support the travelling population, yet if you do expand the highway you're opening up for even more development and sprawl. I'm not sure there's a real way to win in this situation.

Well I know there's a way to win - it's just not realistic in the current political climate.

The road should be built for reasons of existing populations on the southern shore and inhospitable road conditions on the existing one.

However, this will prompt even more sprawl development.

With that said, development restrictions should be put in place, making it less appealing for developers and prospective home-owners - this could come in the form of prohibitive permit fees for the former, or heightened property taxes for new construction for the latter.

Of course, this wouldn't happen in the current policy arrangement with the Town of Bay Bulls within the region. Once again, more sprawl development is good for the Town of Bay Bulls, but a net negative effect on the region.