[St. John's] Transport development (Highways, Airport, and Public Transit)

[delesseps]

Dave Squires ‏@davesquires_nl

Hearing the new @AirCanada Service for St. John's TBA Monday will a Year Round Flight to London. Still unconfirmed atm @NTVNewsNL

A "new Air Canada service" doesn't necessarily mean a new destination.

[Chew]

And year-round to London it is. That's a pretty good announcement, actually. It'll be 3x a week.

Has our LHR service ever been year-round from YYT before?

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

Please please be a direct flight to somewhere in the USA like Boston. C'mon c'mon!

It's YYT-LHR year round. 3x a week.

My brother may be your pilot from time to time.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Ugh c'mon London is nice and all but we could really use some other destinations as well.

[J_Murphy]

Originally Posted by Chew

And year-round to London it is. That's a pretty good announcement, actually. It'll be 3x a week.

Has our LHR service ever been year-round from YYT before?

From the CBC story:

"In 2007, Air Canada cancelled service between St. John's and London despite a promise of seasonal summer service.

Air Canada picked up the seasonal service again in summer 2010."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...vice-1.2661616

[AnUrbanLife]

YES!! Direct flights to London, I love this news! Great.

[delesseps]

From the Telegram:

Eventually, Blackmarsh Road is going to be reconfigured, said Hann, and much of the road’s out-of-town traffic — from Paradise and Mount Pearl — will be diverted. “Once the Team Gushue highway is finished, all of that traffic will bypass Blackmarsh Road,” he said.

Has anyone heard what's planned for Blackmarsh Road? The talk of reconfiguration makes me nervous that a servicable east-west route is going to be broken up like Empire Avenue. Crescents and cul-de-sacs make transit planning a nightmare.

[J_Murphy]

Originally Posted by delesseps

From the Telegram:

Has anyone heard what's planned for Blackmarsh Road? The talk of reconfiguration makes me nervous that a servicable east-west route is going to be broken up like Empire Avenue. Crescents and cul-de-sacs make transit planning a nightmare.

It's my understanding that Blackmarsh will be realigned so that it will become continuous with the new road that was put in for the Westfield development at Gullivers farm. It will then become a four-way intersection with Hamlyn Road and Captain Whelan Drive (which will essentially become an access road for the new highway morphing with Redmonds Road). OR, it will end at Welland St and a new a T-interection with the new road at Westfield. So there will no longer be an intersection of the existing Blackmarsh Road and Captain Whelan. I assume Empire will become a cul-de-sac, but maybe not.

The west side of Blackmarsh will become an interchange to go south towards blackmarsh/hamlyn intersection or north to access Route 3 (I hate calling it Team Gushue Highway). The final design will be interesting to see.

I just did a google search and the City put a tender out in December for design only, so I'm not sure if it has been finalized yet. It was recommended to be awarded to Hatch Mott McDonald.

http://www.stjohns.ca/sites/default/...%202013%20.pdf

[ghYHZ]

Originally Posted by Chew

Has our LHR service ever been year-round from YYT before?

Yes, from the late 1980s through ‘90s it was a YHZ-YYT-LHR service......stopping in YYT several days a week but I don’t believe daily. The other days the flight went non-stop from YHZ across the pond to Prestwick/Glasgow or Heathrow.

Prior to the flights being switched to Torbay in the late 1980s.....the flights operated Halifax-Gander-UK.

[jeddy1989]

The roundabout in Paradise will be a 3 lane roundabout!

The town council seems pretty heelbent on building it! hahah good to see!

Roundabout to be Discussed in Paradise

A public meeting is scheduled in Paradise this evening to discuss a roundabout proposed for the Karwood Drive and Kenmount Road extension intersection. Mayor Dan Bobbett says it's all part of a larger examination of traffic flows in the busy and growing community.


Roundabouts are widely used in many jurisdictions around the world as an efficient way to keep traffic moving, but has run into some recent snags in this province. St. John's City Council is considering removing a small roundabout on Old Topsail Road because of the problems created by drivers who don't know how to use it. Bobbett says they're getting both positive and negative feedback.


He says studies prove that fewer accidents are caused by roundabouts. He says they're widely used in Europe and Nova Scotia currently has 20 and is planning to construct 20 more.

Tonight's meeting gets underway at 7:30, at the Paradise Community Centre.

http://www.vocm.com/newsarticle.asp?...46842&latest=1

[AnUrbanLife]

The latest in the snow-clearing saga. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to get involved in this issue, I think we're actually going to see real improvement for next winter. Optimist I know.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...hn-s-1.2686712

[AllBlack]

Was it really a proper roundabout to begin with...? More like an island stuck in the middle of a road...

Roundabout to be removed from Old Topsail Road



St. John's city council voted on Tuesday to remove the roundabout on Old Topsail Road.

"I'm not one who will support to keep this area and then have a major accident in that area because it's poorly constructed, poorly done and then in no way, shape or form a roundabout," said Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth.

​"The in and out is a disaster waiting to happen. It's time for us to remove it before someone is seriously hurt."

Coun. Tom Hann spoke in favour of keeping the roundabout because it was a pilot project "that cost a signficant amount of money".

"What did we do to educate people about using the first roundabout in this city?" said Hann. "I don't think we did very much. I wonder if we gave it a proper chance by giving the right educational programs surrounding it."

The roundabout was built in 2012 as a way to reduce speeding traffic in the area.

Residents in the area say traffic problems have worsened since the roundabout was installed.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...road-1.2687075

[Horsell]

Originally Posted by AnUrbanLife

The latest in the snow-clearing saga. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to get involved in this issue, I think we're actually going to see real improvement for next winter. Optimist I know.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...hn-s-1.2686712

I have mixed feelings about this whole snow clearing review. On one hand I think it is good that it is being considered for review but I have a few issues with the process.

Is it really necessary to spend $150,000 to study this? I can agree with the argument that it is good to get someone from outside the current operations to give it a fresh set of eyes but hopefully there is significant involvement from City staff as well and they are not just washing their hands of this.

Secondly, the public consultations, as we are seeing now, are going to be a platform for special interest groups. To me, this plays into the hands of the elected officials. The overall cry so far is to spend whatever is necessary to get the job done, which council will wave in the air as an excuse to increase taxes. What if the city spends more on equipment and staffing next year and it rains all winter?

I hope and pray that the consultants can look beyond the emotions and put forward recommendations that take into account the unpredictability of the weather, the fiscal limits of taxation and the level of expectations of all citizens, not just a few.

One final note, and one I fear may come into play as well, is that the city is now in negotiations with its outside workers who no doubt will want to enshrine their positions in this whole matter. They will want more operators for a longer period of time as part of their contract, even if they are sitting on the hands in the event of a mild winter.

Yes, the city needs to do a better job WHEN there is snow but they also need the flexibility to save on snow clearing when there is less.

[rthomasd]

Andrew Robinson's article in today's Telegram has some interesting facts, from the KPMG 'as-is' state of the city's snowclearing efforts.

- last winter, there were 11 days when there weren't enough truck/ploughs available to do the 28 city routes. with 44 pieces of equipment, not enough were operable to cover the 28 routes, no backup equipment available.
- annual inspections and preventive maint usually done in summer weren't completed for all sidewalk equipment, resulting in less than half of the 11 tracked plows available for November & December. AND only ONE of the 14 trackless plows working at the beginning of January.
- some of the sidewalk plows are used in the summer for grass mowing and if there's an early winter, no time for maintenance and switch-over.
- last winter, only 50 % of blower attachments and 66% of stand-alone blowers were available on average.

So, there seems to be some level of mis-management here. Nalcor got extreme flack last winter because they hadn't done the winter maintenance and it appears the City gets a free pass when they don't do it.

I'd like to know what happens to all the extra money not spent in the city's snowclearing budget, about $5 Million each of the past few years. The city doesn't report the year-end snow-clearing budget numbers so we don't know what happened to it. What is the $4.8 Million "fleet costs" in the budget, with only $65,000 spent at end of April

[Horsell]

Paradise wants to build more roads to get more people into the City faster...and if possible they would like St. John's to help pay for it. Do we get to ask them for extra cash to help us upgrade our roads to accept the traffic?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...plan-1.2700879

Would a better investment be LRT using the old rail-bed we scrapped 30 years ago?

[J_Murphy]

Originally Posted by Horsell

Paradise wants to build more roads to get more people into the City faster...and if possible they would like St. John's to help pay for it. Do we get to ask them for extra cash to help us upgrade our roads to accept the traffic?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...plan-1.2700879

Would a better investment be LRT using the old rail-bed we scrapped 30 years ago?

For once, I actually agree with most of the comments on CBC. I hope the City of St. John's does not contribute a dime to solve their years of poor planning. These roads should have been built long before all these cookie-cutter subdivisions started going up. What else are they using their property taxes to pay for?

[Marty_Mcfly]

From fall 2012:

"Although construction of the Kenmount Road / Topsail Road Overpass continues, travellers and commuters have remarked on the lack of lighting on the new structure. The overpass serves the cities of St. John's and Mount Pearl and the Town of Paradise. Capital city mayor, Dennis O'Keefe, has proposed a form of municipal road board aimed at cost-sharing of common highway development, such as street lighting, but Paradise mayor Ralph Wiseman says in this case, his town is the geographic location of the structure and it's the town's responsibility. He says that's the direction they would prefer to take.

Wiseman says they can handle the cost and he would prefer not to get involved in any cost-sharing municipal venture that may not benefit the town or be a disadvantage to them."

I know Wiseman isn't mayor anymore, but just going to put this quote here for all to see when considering whether St. John's should be giving Paradise money.

[ajcoffey]

Light poles were installed on Torbay Rd

https://twitter.com/arianakelland/st...797504/photo/1

[delesseps]

Originally Posted by J_Murphy

For once, I actually agree with most of the comments on CBC. I hope the City of St. John's does not contribute a dime to solve their years of poor planning. These roads should have been built long before all these cookie-cutter subdivisions started going up. What else are they using their property taxes to pay for?

There should be absolutely no municipal funding for "regional infrastructure" without amalgamation. I hope the province can resist a pre-election road-building spree as well. Widening roads is throwing good money after bad.

Can anyone think of where Oceanex's proposed overpass would go? The other proposals are shown in the map on page 4 of the Paradise Transportation Study (page 7 of 73 in pdf format).

[delesseps]

Originally Posted by Horsell

Paradise wants to build more roads to get more people into the City faster...and if possible they would like St. John's to help pay for it. Do we get to ask them for extra cash to help us upgrade our roads to accept the traffic?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...plan-1.2700879

Would a better investment be LRT using the old rail-bed we scrapped 30 years ago?

Bus Rapid Transit along Topsail Road into downtown St. John's would be more realistic. We might get suburbanites to use transit if we can convince the province to toll the ORR and Pitts Memorial Drive where they enter the St. John's city limits. Unfortunately, the illustrated scheme would only work if the Team Gushue Highway never goes past Topsail Road.