Saskatoon Roads & Infrastructure

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by Wyku

Not much of a surprise here, given how poorly the "parkway" is laid out in terms of (varying) speed limits on the East side.

"I'm shocked", said no one.. I'd say it's the very slow speed limit, in addition to the annoyance of varying speed limits. Speaking with a co-worker who uses the new commuter bridge for his daily commute, his comment is that the commuter bridge provides a more consistent commute time. For him, it's about 15-17 minutes, whereas the Circle Drive route is 15-25 minutes and is more likely to be subject to major delays simply due to volume of traffic.

I don't need to commute daily via the commuter bridge but have found that Circle Drive is much quicker route for me, as I use it outside of rush hours.

[hunter12]

Originally Posted by Wyku

Not much of a surprise here, given how poorly the "parkway" is laid out in terms of (varying) speed limits on the East side.

Thousands fewer than expected using new Chief Mistawasis Bridge
https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-ne...pected-using-new-chief-mistawasis-bridge

I'm not at all surprised and it just confirms what I suspected. I live in Arbor Creek and I have used the bridge exactly 9 times. To and from Prince Albert 3 times, once when it opened to see it, and two other times. It is faster for me to take College Drive to Circle Drive to Miller Avenue to the north industrial area than the north bridge.

But I do wish more people would use it to alleviate traffic on Attridge Drive.

[Wyku]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

I lived in Saskatoon and Warman from 2012 to 2016. That being said, I have not driven on the new bridge yet. It did feel like a bit of a bandaid solution to me considering it only serves the NE communities while the SE and Stonebridge will still use Circle Dr.

Next time you're in town you'll definitely have to make a trip on it/the "parkway"--it's pretty face palm worthy. You also need a really tall vehicle to enjoy any views when you're on the bridge...

[SaskScraper]

^^ no surprises, that's the thing about City of Saskatoon, same city planners that bottlenecked Circle Dr North with traffic lights and pinched lanes between new businesses encroaching onto street ...and decided to put SaskTel Centre half way to Martensville, also built a 6 lane, (not 4 lanes as stated by Star Phoenix, apparently no one from the paper has driven the bridge over the last year either), could have made traffic flow a lot easier if they had properly built an over-pass from bridge under Wanuskewin Rd instead of building a huge bridge that has less traffic than the new 2 lane Victoria (Traffic Bridge) to come to full stop at first intersection across.

Crossing Chief Mistawasis Bridge to come to a full stop at a traffic light intersection at Wanuskewin, the City planners purposefully built Chief Mistawasis Bridge so that it will never meet it's potential because of limiting free flow of traffic, just like Circle Dr engineered circa 1980's.

[SaskScraper]

Some Saskatoon Bridge stats:

Here are average daily traffic numbers for Saskatoon’s seven bridges, according to information gathered in early 2019. The rise or drop in daily traffic compared to 2018 is included in parentheses or marked with an asterisk if the comparison numbers are from 2017.

Circle Drive North 69,500 (down 9,800)

University Bridge 43,500 (up 400*)

Gordie Howe 41,900 (down 1,600)

Sid Buckwold 38,900 (down 6,500*)

Broadway 16,200 (down 1,700)

Traffic 12,000 (up 5,900)

Chief Mistawasis 9,900 (no 2018 data)

[Antigonish]

I'm not surprised by lack of traffic volume, the speed limits vary to wildly and are far too slow. I haven't driven it for commute purposes but every once in a while will drive it on the weekend and its empty and slow. Such a huge waste.

[roryn1]

I used to work next to the chief mistawasis bridge, and then would try to hit up a gym in Willowgrove after work - still faster on Circle N because of how it’s laid out and the weirdly varying speeds that no one follows lol. Quite a shame of a bridge but will be good for the future suburban builds that can be built around the bridge LOL

[Wyku]

Hooray for studies!

City committee approves speed study on Chief Mistawasis bridge corridor
https://www.ckom.com/2019/11/05/mistiwasis-bridge-to-undergo-speed-study/

[Pardot Kynes]

I am curious to hear your opinions on the Saskatoon Freeway. Mine is as follows.

I have not been able to find any sort of study on whether this freeway is actually needed, which begs the question: is it worth it to spend $2B (probably more) diverting an unknown amount of traffic around Saskatoon? What is the percentage of traffic originating in or destined for Saskatoon vs. just passing through?

There has been no comparison between a new freeway and other options to determine if they would be more effective, not to mention cost less than $2B. An option like improving existing bottleneck intersections such as Circle Dr. and Idylwyld and changing access to businesses on Circle Dr. such that there are no lights. E.g. reconfigure so access is from other streets (41, 42A, 43). Also, rather than plowing new highway through virgin field, why not consider removing cars from the road by investing in transit (BRT), a proper bike lane network, and pedestrian connections.

Not to mention the additional operations and maintenance costs that will be carried by the Province (or Saskatoon eventually) for 11 new interchanges and the freeway for the rest of time, on top of the capital cost.

The new perimeter bridge being less than 1 kM from Chief Mistawasis also seems ridiculous.

There are improvements that could be made to traffic flow through the city, especially if we want to spend in the billions, but there is no evidence Saskatoon Freeway is the correct solution. What does everyone else think?

[Dengler Avenue]

I don’t know how much property acquisition costs. If it’s low, though, I will rather the west branch of Circle Drive be converted to freeway. For 11-16/Circle Drive interchange, we only need to expropriate properties on the west side to put in a fly-over from Circle Drive eastbound to 11-16 northbound, a loop from 11-16 southbound to Circle Drive eastbound. This is to ensure that the movement between the west branch of Circle Drive and 11-16 North(West) are uninterrupted. In fact, after the Airport Drive interchange (according to my proposal), the freeway lanes should just be elevated all the way until Highway 11-16. Meanwhile, intersections with Marquis Drive for both routes will be replaced with interchanges too, and likewise with 16 & 394 at the southeast corner.

If Edmonton has the gut to turn Highway 16 into a freeway in a very built up environment, I don’t see why not Sasktoon can’t do it either. In fact, as a digression, for Regina Bypass, I wish the province just took out a few properties along Victoria Avenue and threw a few interchanges in.

Personally, I really don’t like the freeway plan because it takes out quite a bit of environmentally sensitive land. Anyway, time to start a new thread for this new ring road?

[Temperance]

Just don't build it through the swale. You will end up with the variable and low speeds that bother people with Mistawasis (though I think that location is a bigger issue) while still destroying an irreplaceable heritage site.

[Dengler Avenue]

Alright I started a nee thread about the ring road. Mods if you see fit, can you move new-ring-road-related comments there? Many thanks.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

I don’t know how much property acquisition costs. If it’s low, though, I will rather the west branch of Circle Drive be converted to freeway. For 11-16/Circle Drive interchange, we only need to expropriate properties on the west side to put in a fly-over from Circle Drive eastbound to 11-16 northbound, a loop from 11-16 southbound to Circle Drive eastbound. This is to ensure that the movement between the west branch of Circle Drive and 11-16 North(West) are uninterrupted. In fact, after the Airport Drive interchange (according to my proposal), the freeway lanes should just be elevated all the way until Highway 11-16. Meanwhile, intersections with Marquis Drive for both routes will be replaced with interchanges too, and likewise with 16 & 394 at the southeast corner.

If Edmonton has the gut to turn Highway 16 into a freeway in a very built up environment, I don’t see why not Sasktoon can’t do it either. In fact, as a digression, for Regina Bypass, I wish the province just took out a few properties along Victoria Avenue and threw a few interchanges in.

Personally, I really don’t like the freeway plan because it takes out quite a bit of environmentally sensitive land. Anyway, time to start a new thread for this new ring road?

I believe Highway 16 through Edmonton is only going to have an 80 km/h speed limit because there isn't space to have proper merge and exit lanes. If Saskatoon is in the same boat then it makes sense to build a new freeway. Time is money in the transportation industry. Having better roads will help to attract distributors, etc. If Saskatoon already had a freeway bypass they could do what Edmonton is doing.

[Wyku]

Councillor pushes for more public input on Circle Drive west study

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-ne...-public-input-on-circle-drive-west-study

I understand the desire for this, but cutting off a large chunk of the West-of-Circle side's access to Circle seems really short sighted. Certainly this area clogs up a bit during rush hour, but that happens at Airport drive and the mess that is Circle from Millar to Ave. C even more on this "freeway". Having to route all that traffic to 22nd's AWFUL intersection would be brutal. The other options are travelling North up to 33rd (which is not a quick trip with all the lights) or South to 11th street (and dealing with the rail lines).

It's too bad Clancy didn't have more thought put into it when the South freeway was made. With the climb up to that intersection a tunnel under Circle to turn North/exit Circle to turn into Fairhaven (and even just continuing onto 18th St) could have been an option, but the 22nd exit probably screws that up.

[Dengler Avenue]

What about this?
Close access to Laurier Drive altogether. Extend Confederation Drive to Clancy Drive as a service road for Circle Drive. Shift Circle Drive east a bit and, most importantly, convert the interchange with 22 Street W into a single point interchange.

We will deal with the mess between Airport Road and SK-11 N (and Marquis Drive in the north and SK-394 in the south) later.

Once these 2 are done, we won’t need the outer ring for another 20 years.

Edit: I just read Corndoggers’ comment again. Hmm whether or not a maximum speed limit of 100 kph is actually debatable.

[roryn1]

Clarence Ave from College Dr to 8th St is getting completely revamped this year! http://vvcasaskatoon.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Clarence-Avenue-Project-Map.pdf

[The Bess]

For anyone who's interested here's more on the Saskatoon Freeway

https://saskatoonfreeway.org/phase-one-info-boards/

[Wyku]

Originally Posted by The Bess

For anyone who's interested here's more on the Saskatoon Freeway

https://saskatoonfreeway.org/phase-one-info-boards/

What they're doing with Highway 11 still boggles my mind, but I guess we'll have to wait and see if this thing ever actually gets built.

[craner]

Why are the Regina & Saskatoon by-passes not designed as complete rings ?

As for the Yellowhead (highway 16) in Edmonton - If the speed limit on Whitemud is only 80km/hr I can’t see Yellowhead being more than that.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by craner

Why are the Regina & Saskatoon by-passes not designed as complete rings ?

As for the Yellowhead (highway 16) in Edmonton - If the speed limit on Whitemud is only 80km/hr I can’t see Yellowhead being more than that.

This is directly from the main page of the Yellowhead Trail Freeway project on the City of Edmonton's website.

Yellowhead Trail is becoming a freeway. This means 3 lanes of free-flowing traffic in each direction. The target speed will be 80km/hr. To do this, current signalized intersections and access on or off Yellowhead Trail will need to be removed and 2 new interchanges will be built. Road users will exit and enter Yellowhead Trail at the nearest interchange or a new parallel service road.

For some areas of the Yellowhead Trail, we are further along in the design process as concept planning is finished. In other areas, like 127 Street and 121 Street, concept planning will start in 2019.

Source: https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/yellowhead-trail-freeway-conversion.aspx