Calgary Public Transit II

[Policy Wonk]

Originally Posted by Sir.Humphrey.Appleby

Can't really bore 8th Ave very easily with the tie in to existing tunnels at city hall, no good launch sites, and the depth it is notionally planned at (trains running on what would be the 'P2' level of most towers)

Supposedly Bankers Hall Auditorium is a Subway Station,

[Surrealplaces]

Interesting article from the Globe and Mail, talking about Calgary's LRT system.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...il-that-works/article1887237/?cmpid=rss1

[You Need A Thneed]

Saddletowne Station:

[UofC.engineer]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Supposedly Bankers Hall Auditorium is a Subway Station,

Really? Where did you hear this? sounds far fetched, but it would be pretty cool if it was true and also probably bring the cost down.

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

Saddletowne Station:

Do you know the exact date the the NE extension is suppose to open? It was originally going to open June 2011 but I've heard now 2012. Doesn't look like there is too much work left to do. But it looks good so far

[frinkprof]

Thanks for the photos YNAT. I think Saddletowne could turn out to be one of the better community walk-on stations (vs. Somerset-Bridlewood and McKnight-Westwinds).

You should post those on the CP thread as well.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by UofC.engineer

Really? Where did you hear this? sounds far fetched, but it would be pretty cool if it was true and also probably bring the cost down.

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Supposedly Bankers Hall Auditorium is a Subway Station,

I believe it is a concourse connection, as they likely wouldn't let a company go over their property line. So it might help a bit depending if it is big enough for throughput to not need to new build the usually required two separate entrances capable of individually clearing a full train at whatever they plan max headway to be.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by UofC.engineer

Do you know the exact date the the NE extension is suppose to open? It was originally going to open June 2011 but I've heard now 2012. Doesn't look like there is too much work left to do. But it looks good so far

Fall 2012 Officially. It really does seem that they could have it open before then.

[SubwayRev]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

Fall 2012 Officially. It really does seem that they could have it open before then.

Also seems odd it will take longer than the enire West leg. Didn't they start that extenstion before the West LRT?

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by SubwayRev

Also seems odd it will take longer than the enire West leg. Didn't they start that extenstion before the West LRT?

It's now taking the better part of a year to replace a single platform downtown, in a city that used to be able to build entire interchanges in 7 months. Don't expect logical timeframes on any of this stuff.

[You Need A Thneed]

I think the target opening is sept 2012, and with a couple of months of CT testing beforehand, it probably needs to be complete in June or July. Considering less work would be done in the winter, I'm sure they are planning to be nearly complete before next winter. With an early spring this spring and a late fall, perhaps they could get it done to be tested in the winter.

Martindale Station is close to done, except the final finishes.
Saddletowne Station is close to done structurally as well.
the 64th Ave Tunnel is nearly complete.
Ties and Tracks have been laid for some of the route. (tracks not in final position yet)
Sound Fencing is complete.
Saddletowne Park and Ride is paved, just needs landscaping and a few final details.
Two substations are mostly done structurally as well - Exterior cladding has been going up.

Still to do:
Trackwork
Catenary Poles and lines
4 road crossings

[UofC.engineer]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

Still to do:
Trackwork
Catenary Poles and lines
4 road crossings

That should be a breeze, it's only 2.8kms, they got all summer to do it. I don't know why it's gonna take so long.

[UofC.engineer]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

Fall 2012 Officially. It really does seem that they could have it open before then.

Thanks for the info

[SubwayRev]

Originally Posted by freeweed

It's now taking the better part of a year to replace a single platform downtown, in a city that used to be able to build entire interchanges in 7 months. Don't expect logical timeframes on any of this stuff.

Yeah, don't get me started on the platforms. That should take one year, to do every single platform in the City. Not over ten.

[mersar]

The problem that causes the slow pace isn't so much the contractors, but the city and their budgetting process.

How they do things is to only budget $X of the $Z total for the project each year, meaning that while the contractor probably could easily do parts W, X and Y, they only get the money to do W and X this year, and have to wait until next year to do Y.

And it isn't only the city that does this, the province does also as do others. My brothers employer is doing some work on the new science centre, work that could have been started last fall except that the work was under the 2011 budget not 2010, so they couldn't start until the money was available come January 1.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by mersar

The problem that causes the slow pace isn't so much the contractors, but the city and their budgetting process.

How they do things is to only budget $X of the $Z total for the project each year, meaning that while the contractor probably could easily do parts W, X and Y, they only get the money to do W and X this year, and have to wait until next year to do Y.

And it isn't only the city that does this, the province does also as do others. My brothers employer is doing some work on the new science centre, work that could have been started last fall except that the work was under the 2011 budget not 2010, so they couldn't start until the money was available come January 1.

Yes, and at least some of the budget layout is a direct result of how the funding comes from the province. The northeast extension falls under this category. Not sure about the 7th Avenue work, but this is likely as well.

[93JC]

Originally Posted by Sir.Humphrey.Appleby

I believe it is a concourse connection, as they likely wouldn't let a company go over their property line.

The auditorium is built beside the foundation wall, which is right at the property line. Bankers Hall's foundation doesn't extend below the street.

Hypothetically you might able to repurpose part of the auditorium as a subway station but it would entail major modifications, the least of which would be punching out a large portion of the foundation wall. I'm not a structural engineer but I'd guess that would not be a simple task...


On the other hand there really are tunnels underneath the Municipal Building and Olympic Plaza.

[jeffwhit]

This is not the first time I have heard that the BH auditorium was intended to be used as a subway platform either.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by mersar

The problem that causes the slow pace isn't so much the contractors, but the city and their budgetting process.

To be frank, as a consumer of said services (and in the end, funding source) I don't really give a rat's ass WHY it takes so long. It still comes down to incredibly poorly structured planning. There's no legitimate reason budgets couldn't be saved up over several years, then all the work (and resulting disruption to the system) happens at once.

I mean, besides the fact that our entire political and economic systems are completely focused on making excuses and covering asses, instead of actually serving the public. I'd like to make the typical comment of "imagine what would happen if private industry did things this way?", except I see that very thing happening all the time too.

[SubwayRev]

Originally Posted by freeweed

To be frank, as a consumer of said services (and in the end, funding source) I don't really give a rat's ass WHY it takes so long. It still comes down to incredibly poorly structured planning. There's no legitimate reason budgets couldn't be saved up over several years, then all the work (and resulting disruption to the system) happens at once.

Or borrow to finish the project right away.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by SubwayRev

Or borrow to finish the project right away.

Which is essentially why P3 is fast becoming a favourite of people who actually are impacted by these needless disruptions. As opposed to those who aren't affected (ie: how many city councilors take the C-Train to work each day?).