Highway 102 - Larry Uteck Boulevard Interchange | Completed - Page 2

Haliguy · #1 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 2:30 AM**

Roundabouts work great if designed right. Halifax has the Armdale Roundabout which works well and a lot better than when it was a rotary and there a few others around the province. Moncton has never had one before or NB for that matter so in may not work as well there at first.

Dmajackson · #2 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 2:52 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haliguy

Roundabouts work great if designed right. Halifax has the Armdale Roundabout which works well and a lot better than when it was a rotary and there a few others around the province. Moncton has never had one before or NB for that matter so in may not work as well there at first.

Moncton has two roundabouts actually. There's one near Champlain Place and one further downtown.

One thing I've noticed in a lot of highway plans for the province (NS) is there are a lot of roundabouts planned now. I believe at least one was constructed for part of the 101 widening recently.

I remember when my driving teacher first took me to Armdale I was scared silly because of the bad media the conversion got but I have to say now the Armdale is probably one of my favorite places to drive in town. Its really safe and quick. Just as a side not emy least favorite place to drive is Mumford Road.

Haliguy · #3 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 2:57 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bedford_DJ

Moncton has two roundabouts actually. There's one near Champlain Place and one further downtown.

One thing I've noticed in a lot of highway plans for the province (NS) is there are a lot of roundabouts planned now. I believe at least one was constructed for part of the 101 widening recently.

I remember when my driving teacher first took me to Armdale I was scared silly because of the bad media the conversion got but I have to say now the Armdale is probably one of my favorite places to drive in town. Its really safe and quick. Just as a side not emy least favorite place to drive is Mumford Road.

Actually I don't believe those are roundabouts in Moncton they are rotaries I believe.

Dmajackson · #4 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 2:59 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haliguy

Actually I don't believe those are roundabouts in Moncton they are rotaries I believe.

You might be right.

I'll have to ask the Moncton thread.

MonctonRad · #5 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 3:23 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haliguy

Actually I don't believe those are roundabouts in Moncton they are rotaries I believe.

They are rotaries but we tend to call them "traffic circles" here in Monctonia. They are located at Hall's Creek next to Champlain Place and at the Moncton end of the Petitcodiac River causeway.

Unique to Moncton in North America, these two traffic circles are connected by a four lane divided expressway (Wheeler Blvd.) with a speed limit of 100 km/hr. Needless to say, you have to do some heavy duty slowing down to enter the traffic circles from Wheeler!!

The Hall's Creek traffic circle works reasonably well and, like all "rotaries", the cars actually inside the traffic circle has the right of way. The causeway traffic circle however has a much smaller radius and frequently gets backed up, especially by traffic trying to enter the circle from Wheeler Blvd, and as such, the traffic here tends to default to a "roundabout" pattern with the traffic already in the circle stopping to let merging cars in.

Just to confuse the situation even more, the traffic planners here are actually planning to build at least two formal roundabouts at a couple of complex intersections in the next couple of years.

This will leave us with:
- a traffic circle that functions as a rotary
- a second traffic circle that is supposed to function as a rotary but actually functions more like a roundabout if traffic is congested
- two roundabouts that actually will be roundabouts.

Take care when driving in Moncton and don't forget to dodge the potholes.

kph06 · #6 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 2:27 AM**

Haha yeah, I had a class where one of the heads of the traffic department taught a section. He said it's hard to use traffic modeling programs for Halifax because we don't react the same way the computer thinks we should. I don't think its a bad thing, we're more relaxed I'd say, I like it. It was funny I was doing a model for our project of re-designing the cogswell interchange, and on the program I was using, 2-3 cars would make the left turn on the amber. I was shocked when I saw that happening.

These seem like mini roundabouts for Larry Uteck, not full on Armdale rotaries, I think they could work.

Dmajackson · #7 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 3:06 AM**

I'm too impatience to wait for a responce in the Moncton thread so I looked it up.

The two I know of are considered traffic circles or rotaries so Haliguy is right this time.

They do have one planned for this summer though.

EDIT: I looked it up further and while Moncton has no official roundabouts other areas in NB such as Ormocto and Mirimachi have some.

mylesmalley · #8 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 4:05 AM**

Moncton has a pretty storied history when it comes to roundabouts.About ten years ago the city tried to address the traffic problem at Botsford and Mountain by painting a giant yellow dot in the middle of the intersection and getting rid of the traffic lights. People were supposed to drive 'around the giant dot' like a roundabout. If memory serves it lasted about a week. People just drove straight through and the whole thing basically turned into a four way stop. The two traffic circles have been quite a bit more effective. The main problem with the causeway circle is that it's one lane too narrow on one side. Logistically it's a mess to widen unfortunately.

As for the rest of NB. Oromocto has quite a few roundabouts and they function quite effectively. Miramichi has at least one as well. Fredericton has a half dozen or so micro-circles which are basically standard size residential intersections that are designed to function as a roundabout. Moncton has a couple of these in one of the urban-rural fringe big lot developments.

The four-circle design being proposed here is actually a very common sight in Europe. Almost all interchanges in Ireland use at least one roundabout. Typically they use a diamond interchange with roundabouts on either side. Less commonly, you'll see a single large roundabout that connects all the ramps on and off the highway, as well as the connecting roads. The highway usually either goes above or below the circle.

someone123 · #9 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 4:42 AM**

The 102 interchange project looks much larger than I had originally thought. I guess a stretch of the highway will become six lanes..?

They did some work near there a while ago and I guess it was the Kearney Lake connector piece.

Haliguy · #10 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 11:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

Moncton has a pretty storied history when it comes to roundabouts.About ten years ago the city tried to address the traffic problem at Botsford and Mountain by painting a giant yellow dot in the middle of the intersection and getting rid of the traffic lights. People were supposed to drive 'around the giant dot' like a roundabout. If memory serves it lasted about a week. People just drove straight through and the whole thing basically turned into a four way stop. The two traffic circles have been quite a bit more effective. The main problem with the causeway circle is that it's one lane too narrow on one side. Logistically it's a mess to widen unfortunately.

As for the rest of NB. Oromocto has quite a few roundabouts and they function quite effectively. Miramichi has at least one as well. Fredericton has a half dozen or so micro-circles which are basically standard size residential intersections that are designed to function as a roundabout. Moncton has a couple of these in one of the urban-rural fringe big lot developments.

The four-circle design being proposed here is actually a very common sight in Europe. Almost all interchanges in Ireland use at least one roundabout. Typically they use a diamond interchange with roundabouts on either side. Less commonly, you'll see a single large roundabout that connects all the ramps on and off the highway, as well as the connecting roads. The highway usually either goes above or below the circle.

I didn't realize there were so many around NB.

Yean in Europe there a lot and they work really well.

mylesmalley · #11 Posted **Mar 24, 2009, 3:21 PM**

There are three problems with rotaries that I can think of. I'll say now that I can't speak to Halifax because I'm only really familiar with NB roads. That said, most of this should apply regardless.

First, (at least in Moncton) people are quite used to massive multi-lane traffic circles, but not traditional small roundabouts. The important thing to keep in mind about the Halls Creek circle though is that the vast majority of people never need to merge or change lanes when they use it. the way the lanes are laid out, there are dedicated lanes for people staying on Route 15. Technically speaking, you never lose the right of way if you're going from Wheeler Blvd. towards Shediac even as you pass through the circle. This works great in this instance because most traffic flows this way. The problem here lies in the fact that this interchange therefore doesn't act as a pure roundabout in the strictest sense.

Second. People just don't know proper roundabout etiquette. You are always supposed to yield to people already in the circle. In a situation like the causeway circle, traffic on Wheeler can back up for more than a Km because traffic on Main St. gets access to the road first and Wheeler is supposed to yield to them. However, people don't really get this and you often end up with cars alternating between Wheeler and Main. While this might seem courtious, all it does is back up cars coming from Main and those coming from Riverview and Salisbury. (By the way, you can see all this on my project map of Moncton

). The obvious solution is to just widen the circle either radius-wise, lane-wise or both.

Third. People just don't like change.

mylesmalley · #12 Posted **Mar 25, 2009, 6:11 AM**

A rather ridiculous application of roundabouts is in Swindon, UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

Note that there are actually five roundabouts next to each other connected by a larger two-way roundabout.

Also, here's an interesting website put together by British road enthusiasts:

http://www.cbrd.co.uk/reference/interchanges/

It also has quite an extensive glossary of good (and poor) interchange designs. It doesn't take much browsing around to see that the British really love their roundabouts.

Dmajackson · #13 Posted **Mar 30, 2009, 7:25 PM**

I was by this area this weekend and much of the forest has been cleared away. There are quite a few large stacks of wood sitting on the side of the highway.

Spitfire75 · #14 Posted **Apr 3, 2009, 11:34 AM**

I drive the 102 pretty often. I drove by this yesterday and it's really coming along. Both sides of the highway are deforested and you can kinda see where the streets are going to go already.

Dmajackson · #15 Posted **Apr 17, 2009, 10:40 PM**

I was reading the provincial website today and starting tomorrow they are starting a massive repaving/widening/median repair job tomorrow (April 18th).

It stretches from the 101 (Exit 4B) down to Hammonds Plains. While the new interchange might not be in this stretch I think they are doing this part so over the next 12 months they can fix up down to Kearney LAke with the construction of the interchange.

Here are some photos I snapped from the corner of Southgate Drive and Larry Uteck tonight;

Dezzo · #16 Posted **May 31, 2009, 9:40 PM**

A new portion of Larry Uteck Blvd. is now open between Starboard Dr./Bedros Ln. and Southgate Dr.

The new section is just wide enough for a single lane in each direction. There don't appear to be any driveway cuts in the curb on either side along the entire new portion, so hopefully this means that access points will be consolodated, and the majority of the new section of Larry Uteck Blvd. can flow unimpeded.

It's also not as wide as recent minor collector roads, such as Parkland Dr. or Baker Dr. which means there likely won't be any room for curbside parking.

So it will be interesting to see how the development of this area proceeds. Hopefully they get it right!

Dmajackson · #17 Posted **May 31, 2009, 10:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dezzo

A new portion of Larry Uteck Blvd. is now open between Starboard Dr./Bedros Ln. and Southgate Dr.

The new section is just wide enough for a single lane in each direction. There don't appear to be any driveway cuts in the curb on either side along the entire new portion, so hopefully this means that access points will be consolodated, and the majority of the new section of Larry Uteck Blvd. can flow unimpeded.

It's also not as wide as recent minor collector roads, such as Parkland Dr. or Baker Dr. which means there likely won't be any room for curbside parking.

So it will be interesting to see how the development of this area proceeds. Hopefully they get it right!

Welcome to the forums "Dezzo"

I've been using Larry Uteck since it was opened a few weeks ago and I've noticed the same things.

I've looked at the plans and the lack of curb cuts says to me they plan to do the buildings later on at which point they'll redo the curbs. There are currently three spots off the road where construction is going on and I believe they are using some of the future condo locations for excavation to use a fill further up the hill. Only one of these has a proper curb cut so I imagine a building will be going up there soon.

I've also noticed the road width and it is very strange to me. Starboard Drive is a much more minor road and it is at least twice as wide as LU. This is just speculation but like you said they might ban parking going up the hill and just make it a two lane street with a middle alternating lane if theres space.

One thing to note though is LU has a couple of curb cuts up past Southgate (where the road is still being built) for what I believe is the commercial properties.

Dmajackson · #18 Posted **Jun 3, 2009, 7:24 PM**

With the approval of the capital cost sharing thing last night Council also approved the funding for the new interchange to be split with the province.

I think they said the tenders is currently out there and should be awarded by the province sometime next week.

q12 · #19 Posted **Jul 24, 2009, 11:07 PM**

Looks like this thing is ready to start construction any day and be complete this time next year, if I read this right and council approved this spending increase for their share of the funding plan.

http://www.halifax.ca/council/agenda...09070713.1.pdf

q12 · #20 Posted **Jul 30, 2009, 4:00 PM**

From NS Gov't Website:

Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal
July 29, 2009 1:47 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Work has begun on a $21.6-million project to improve access on one of Nova Scotia's busiest roads.

The contract to build an interchange on Highway 102 to connect with Larry Uteck Boulevard between Bedford and Halifax was awarded to Dexter Construction Co. Ltd.

"When completed, this interchange will lessen the traffic overload on the Bedford Highway and, at the same time, open up some previously inaccessible land for development," said Frank Corbett, acting Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal. "The significant benefits of this construction wouldn't have been possible without the co-operation of all three levels of government."

Scheduled to take a year to complete, the project involves building of an overpass and ramps with roundabouts. During the first few months of construction Highway 102 traffic may be stopped for a maximum of 20 minutes once a day during off-peak driving times to allow blasting.

An aerial view of the construction area and other details are available at http://www.gov.ns.ca/tran/highways/LarryUteckBlvd.asp.