Calgary Roads

[CorporateWhore]

The bus ride out was a bit of a pain, but otherwise fun was had by all.

Frinkprof you should've said hello...I don't think we've met before? We're pretty used to having a child hanging off our arm by now.

Might as well add my photos to thread.


Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 by Thomasaurus, on Flickr


Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce by Thomasaurus, on Flickr


Porsche 928S by Thomasaurus, on Flickr


Hmm, this guy looks familiar by Thomasaurus, on Flickr


Tunnel-16 by Thomasaurus, on Flickr


T-Bird by Thomasaurus, on Flickr


Porsche 550 Spyder by Thomasaurus, on Flickr

[lineman]

I wish I hadn't pulled a thirteen hour shift that ended at 1:00pm, because I would have gone to this. Cool to see that many exotic and unique cars there.

Would've made for a good afternoon. Sure beats spending the day discussing American hookers online in a Calgary Urban/Suburban debate thread.

[milomilo]

http://conf.tac-atc.ca/english/annua...ion7/azita.pdf

This document shows 2 narrower lanes plus LRT. It looks like you could just about squeeze in three lanes if you abandoned most of the shoulder, but that probably wouldn't be a good idea in a tunnel.

[The Chemist]

Is it just me or is that tunnel really tall? I don't seem to recall Shanghai's river tunnels having that much clearance, but it's been quite a while since I've gone through one so I may be wrong.

[CorporateWhore]

It didn't seem overly tall to me. Either way, they probably wanted to make sure it was able to handle a large cross section of vehicle types. They had a digger displayed on top of a trailer, and the space above it wasn't ridiculously high or anything.

If anything, the lanes were a little narrowed than I thought they'd be, but you have a bit of a different perspective as a pedestrian as opposed to when you drive.

[lineman]

Originally Posted by The Chemist

Is it just me or is that tunnel really tall? I don't seem to recall Shanghai's river tunnels having that much clearance, but it's been quite a while since I've gone through one so I may be wrong.

Possibly to fit LRT cars if that pipe dream ever comes to fruition.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by lineman

Possibly to fit LRT cars if that pipe dream ever comes to fruition.

LRT cars don't need as much clearance as trucks.

The tunnel is posted with a 5.3 metre clearance.

Above that are the fans, lane control, etc. it's around 7 metres to the ceiling.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by ByeByeBaby

No, we wouldn't be "more glad". To start with, the tunnel money is only a drop in the bucket compared to the Green Line LRT. 20 years from now - hell, 20 hours from now - once the runway is operating, the price of a tunnel goes up at least an order of magnitude. So we could have the airport tunnel, and once we come up with $3 billion build the Green Line, or we could have some preliminary earthworks done for the Green Line, and only need $2.8 billion more for it, plus $3 billion for the airport tunnel.

I'm a transit advocate, but the airport tunnel is a total no-brainer. I'm just glad that a long-term perspective was used for once.

The bit that bugs me out the tunnel is that it should have been built 20 years ago when the airport put out the original plan for the second runway and closure of Barlow. Instead we wait till the 11th hour and have to pull money from other projects, when that money could have been put aside years ago.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Surprised not to see Bigtime there.

We were kid free on Saturday, took full advantage of it.

I did drive through it yesterday morning though, pretty cool.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by Full Mountain

The bit that bugs me out the tunnel is that it should have been built 20 years ago when the airport put out the original plan for the second runway and closure of Barlow. Instead we wait till the 11th hour and have to pull money from other projects, when that money could have been put aside years ago.

Money wasn't pulled from current other projects, only from the post 2017 provincial funding envelope. The money was borrowed.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Money wasn't pulled from current other projects, only from the post 2017 provincial funding envelope. The money was borrowed.

So it was pulled from projects that would have been funded by the post 2017 funding, whatever they may be. My point is that the delays in planning, caused a shuffling of priorities, something that should have been done 20 years ago.

[MalcolmTucker]

^ then we would have had to pull money from projects that are already done today! It makes little difference in the end.

[RyLucky]

Originally Posted by Full Mountain

The bit that bugs me out the tunnel is that it should have been built 20 years ago when the airport put out the original plan for the second runway and closure of Barlow. Instead we wait till the 11th hour and have to pull money from other projects, when that money could have been put aside years ago.

What we should have done is kept the airport terminal building where it was 50 years ago at the south side of the airport lands, and save everyone 4 km/trip over the past half century.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by RyLucky

What we should have done is kept the airport terminal building where it was 50 years ago at the south side of the airport lands, and save everyone 4 km/trip over the past half century.

I do believe even when the new terminal was planned they knew there would someday be the parallel runway, thus moving the terminal north to make operations easier when that day came.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by RyLucky

What we should have done is kept the airport terminal building where it was 50 years ago at the south side of the airport lands, and save everyone 4 km/trip over the past half century.

and, now, with the runway opening, a south end terminal would be a lousy place (in terms of taxiing distance) to have it.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

and, now, with the runway opening, a south end terminal would be a lousy place (in terms of taxiing distance) to have it.

Absolutely. You see this poor planning at a lot of airports, where you spend 15-20 minutes taxiing everytime. I'm extremely happy YYC made the right choice.

[lineman]

I'm for one glad there was enough foresight to move the terminal north to allow for growth. Imagine how much more of a clusterfuck that Deerfoot/McKnight/12th area would be if it had stayed.

[Innersoul1]

I am wondering if anyone has thoughts on the "fancy" crosswalk painting that the city is undertaking in parts of the city. They are painted in a terracotta and sandstone colour and feature a design that looks like stamped concrete. I can't seem to find a picture of one in Calgary but the image I have posted below is closest to it.

They look great, but I can only imagine the cost associated with them. They have been actively used on the crosswalks around the West LRT. My biggest issue is that they didn't weather the winter very well. In many locations it's all but gone. Additionally, i watch a crew go about putting in one of these crosswalks. It's a multi-step process that takes the better part of a day to complete half of a crosswalk.

I am all for beautifying our urban spaces but this doesn't really do so efficiently. Additionally, the impact on the safety of pedestrians, in terms of visibility is marginal at best.


Credit: Urban Spaces and Place Blog

[Ramsayfarian]

Not sure if it has been mentioned here yet, but I noticed that with the road construction being done on 14st SW, one can see the old streetcar rail ties.

[CTrainDude]

Originally Posted by Ramsayfarian

Not sure if it has been mentioned here yet, but I noticed that with the road construction being done on 14st SW, one can see the old streetcar rail ties.

Awesome - any chance someone has some photos?