Metro Vancouver Road Infrastructure Discussion

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Reposting this again. It appears to have slowed the distracted driver down no problem though?

Did it? There's no context. They could have backed up over it thinking it was a parking space (which is clueless but...).

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Did it? There's no context. They could have backed up over it thinking it was a parking space (which is clueless but...).

That's the more likely scenario for this case. The back of the car probably has more clearance and if he went straight onto it you would assume the paint would have some marks on it and the front bumper.

How he drove past them and didn't see them is another story.

[madog222]

Lougheed Hwy & Harris Road intersection improvements. Most left turn movements are removed from the main intersection.

Also drawn in is a future "North Lougheed Connector" which I guess would connect to Golden Ears Way.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/trans...on-projects/highway7-harris-improvements

[flipper316]

JFC. Just build a damn interchange. What is it with this province. How is adding another light an improvement. Don't they learn anything from the island highway or highway 17 or highway 1 and Westview etc etc . Surely for the money they'll maybe spend on this half ass project they can build an interchange .

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by flipper316

JFC. Just build a damn interchange. What is it with this province. How is adding another light an improvement. Don't they learn anything from the island highway or highway 17 or highway 1 and Westview etc etc . Surely for the money they'll maybe spend on this half ass project they can build an interchange .

Not just another light, another TWO lights!

That is the most hilarious design ever.

You turn one left turn onto Lougheed Hwy (westbound) and turn it into:
1) having to proceed through an intersection
2) then having to be in queue to turn left onto a new roadway
3) then having to merge onto Lougheed Hwy.

This province is just a joke.

[madog222]

The point of this is to reduce the high accident rate of the intersection, not to mention adding the active transportation and transit improvements. It's Lougheed Highway ffs, there isn’t going to be an interchange.

Originally Posted by logicbomb

Not just another light, another TWO lights!

That is the most hilarious design ever.

You turn one left turn onto Lougheed Hwy (westbound) and turn it into:
1) having to proceed through an intersection
2) then having to be in queue to turn left onto a new roadway
3) then having to merge onto Lougheed Hwy.

This province is just a joke.

You could bother to read the province’s information in the link provided…

With the new configuration, NB Harris -> WB Lougheed will save over half (57%) the travel time through the intersection with 2035 traffic levels.

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by madog222

The point of this is to reduce the high accident rate of the intersection, not to mention adding the active transportation and transit improvements. It's Lougheed Highway ffs, there isn’t going to be an interchange.


You could bother to read the province’s information in the link provided…

With the new configuration, NB Harris -> WB Lougheed will save over half (57%) the travel time through the intersection with 2035 traffic levels.

Lougheed should be being slowly upgraded to expressway status (at least east of Port Coquitlam).

The current slow road connectivity prevents the large amounts of industrial land in east/north Maple Ridge (and the non-ALR land behind it) from being used, as well as generally hampering travel in the region.


The 'future connection' to Golden Ears Way is pretty much begging for a future 2nd bypass around Maple Ridge- and Golden Ears Way is much more suited for full-free-flow than Lougheed across Maple Ridge Center itself, so this would allow for Lougheed itself to have proper transit built on it.



The issue is the 'induced demand' meme has taken over, which means we just underbuild everything because not doing so will 'induce' too much demand (ie. create too much economic growth).

Reminds me how they built the 216 St overpass connector in Walnut Grove, than upgraded it from 2 to 4 lanes within a year.

[libtard]

Why do the road calming barriers have to have the angled end pieces? We don’t need to launch cars up into the air. Just pointless

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by libtard

Why do the road calming barriers have to have the angled end pieces? We don’t need to launch cars up into the air. Just pointless

The same reason why all Jersey barriers have angled end pieces: In order to launch cars up into the air instead of launching passengers through the windshield.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by chowhou

The same reason why all Jersey barriers have angled end pieces: In order to launch cars up into the air instead of launching passengers through the windshield.

They don't design any concrete barriers to make cars go airborne. It seems like it's more common to use water/sand barrels than any sloped concrete barriers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_attenuator

This is the design of those steel guard rails that flipped cars around highways in the US



https://www.crashforensics.com/papers.cfm?PaperID=53

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by libtard

Why do the road calming barriers have to have the angled end pieces? We don’t need to launch cars up into the air. Just pointless

Seems doubtful where these are placed that a car would have enough speed to go airborne. Throw in the fact none of these blocks are probably secured to the ground and they are placed offset to the other blocks. Seems more likely the force would dislodge the blocks in various directions.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

They don't design any concrete barriers to make cars go airborne. It seems like it's more common to use water/sand barrels than any sloped concrete barriers.

That's not exactly true. https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/marchapril-2000/basics-concrete-barriers

Jersey barriers are designed to redirect vehicles slightly upwards, from the side the barrier is sloped to redirect momentum upwards, and from the end the barrier is sloped and long and flat to bring the vehicle on top to do a cool skateboard grind to burn momentum.

On a highway, there are much more sophisticated ways to burn momentum without the skateboard grind, but as the pictures have shown, it works at lower (non-highway) speeds!

[libtard]

Originally Posted by chowhou

The same reason why all Jersey barriers have angled end pieces: In order to launch cars up into the air instead of launching passengers through the windshield.

Like the below poster said, all jersey barriers do not have angled end pieces. Actually I’ve only seen them in BC. If the car isn’t going fast enough to launch, then it isn’t going fast enough to send someone through a windshield. Either way, the jersey barriers end cap is an additional piece. Just leave it off. Let the car run into the barrier, its better than sending it up and over.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by libtard

Like the below poster said, all jersey barriers do not have angled end pieces. Actually I’ve only seen them in BC. If the car isn’t going fast enough to launch, then it isn’t going fast enough to send someone through a windshield. Either way, the jersey barriers end cap is an additional piece. Just leave it off. Let the car run into the barrier, its better than sending it up and over.

Care to provide any examples?

[officedweller]

Good point about backing up onto the barrier.
I've hit a big rock while backing up in a parking lot while on vacation in Hawaii.
Anything lower than your truck or tailgate would be hard to see (without a back-up camera).

Here are the BC MoT spec for jersey barriers:

https://www.langleyconcretegroup.com/uploads/technical-drawings/Highway%20Barriers/HWY-MOT.pdf


Even the temporary plastic ones are taller:


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-slow-street-concrete-barriers

Vancouver's "Slow Streets" plastic barriers to be replaced by permanent unmovable concrete barriers
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-slow-street-concrete-barriers

[libtard]

Originally Posted by madog222

Care to provide any examples?

Examples of…? Both links referencing jersey barriers don’t show any angled end pieces. I assume that’s what you’re talking about?

[libtard]

Abbotsford’s section of highway 1 has been in shambles since the flood of the sumas area. Asphalt is in atrocious condition, litter everywhere, too many tent encampments to count. It’s pretty grim

[jollyburger]

The province is looking to shore up protection of the Lions Gate Bridge and Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing in the event of a major ship strike.

And the province's Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is starting to make longer-term plans for the future of the Ironworkers.

The ministry is seeking engineering firms to design in-water structures that would halt or deflect a vessel drifting off course before it collides with the bridge foundations. A strike on one of the bridges has the potential to partially sever the North Shore from Metro Vancouver.

The impetus for the project is a change in federal engineering standards. In 2015 the province commissioned a study that found the annual risk of collapse from a vessel strike on either of the bridges was less than one in 1,000. That level of risk is considered acceptable for lesser bridges, but the newer federal standards state the risk should be less than one in 10,000 for “critical” bridges, like the Lions Gate and Ironworkers.

The Lions Gate Bridge and Ironworkers see approximately 60,000 and 125,000 crossings per day, respectively.


In 2018, the ministry sought engineering firms to begin the design work, but the project never got off the ground. This week communications staff from the ministry did not immediately respond to a North Shore News request to explain the five-year delay, but North Vancouver-Lonsdale NDP MLA Bowinn Ma acknowledged that the update is a positive one.

“While the damage of a vessel impact is very unlikely, these crossings are so critically important to the North Shore, to the province, and really nationally, these protections are overdue,” she said. “The retrofits are meant to complement the stringent vessel transit procedures put in place by the by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority for the safe movement of people and goods through the Burrard Inlet.”

Ma said the North Shore has already seen what happens when a pothole requires just one lane of the Ironworkers to be closed, or when a snowstorm prevents health-care workers from commuting to Lions Gate Hospital.

“The consequences to the North Shore would be just extraordinary,” she said. “It could be absolutely catastrophic for us.”

The ministry will be consulting with regulatory bodies, Indigenous groups, local governments, the marine industry and boaters for the exact designs, but they do know the protection for Lions Gate Bridge will require a rock-fill berm at the base of its south tower, similar to one already in place at the north tower.

Structurally, the Ironworkers still has about 40 years of life left in it, but later this year the province will begin a study into where it fits in the longer term. Exactly what that study will include hasn’t been decided yet, but Ma said at least one part of it should be clear.

“I would say it’s quite critical that the terms of reference for this work include consideration for how it dovetails with the concept of a rapid transit solution for the North Shore. That’s a concept that the North Shore has done substantial work to get off the ground,” she said.

As for those eager to see the province get to work on a wider replacement today, Ma cautioned that more lanes of travel won’t have the desired effect of congestion-free commutes.

“Even if we cross more cars over the bridges onto the North Shore, where do they go on the other end? A lot of them spill into our local streets and jam up our local streets,” she said.

Far more effective will be concentrating new development in areas with access to transit, shopping and services so residents won’t be so reliant on cars and roads for all of their needs, she added.

https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/provin...-shore-bridges-from-ship-strikes-6815795

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/provin...-shore-bridges-from-ship-strikes-6815795

Ma said the North Shore has already seen what happens when a pothole requires just one lane of the Ironworkers to be closed, or when a snowstorm prevents health-care workers from commuting to Lions Gate Hospital.

“The consequences to the North Shore would be just extraordinary,” she said. “It could be absolutely catastrophic for us.”

The best protection against that kind of "catastrophe" would be a third crossing, and that would have the benefit of actually expediting traffic for the 9999 out of 10000 times that one of the bridges *doesn't* suffer a ship strike.

[madog222]

^

Structurally, the Ironworkers still has about 40 years of life left in it, but later this year the province will begin a study into where it fits in the longer term. Exactly what that study will include hasn’t been decided yet, but Ma said at least one part of it should be clear.

“I would say it’s quite critical that the terms of reference for this work include consideration for how it dovetails with the concept of a rapid transit solution for the North Shore. That’s a concept that the North Shore has done substantial work to get off the ground,” she said.