The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[jeddy1989]

Originally Posted by ErickMontreal

To be honest I would not mind to trade some Tim Hortons locations to get a Second Cup, a Timothy`s or more Java Moose for that matter. Saint John has enough Tim Horton's already.

For the record, Saint John is the only major city in the maritimes that does not have either a Second Cup or Timothy`s. No offense to Tim's but the time has come to bring in some more diversity !

you guys could just put them near each other, in St. John's in the Stavanger Dr. big box area on the same corner there is a second cup, tim hortons, starbucks and McCafe... like literally on the same corner, with a second tim hortons just up the road. (however no Timothy's in the city)

[Eddy]

I can't believe how many oil carrying rail cars are sitting on tracks throughout Saint John.

I see the trains heading in from West Saint John - very long and laden with oil.

Does anyone know the next steps for this grand experiment? The rail yard they built to offload these tanks is being prepared for a big addition.

Was there a separate site being prepared to load LNG-carrying trucks?

[cdnguys]

Originally Posted by Eddy

I can't believe how many oil carrying rail cars are sitting on tracks throughout Saint John.

I see the trains heading in from West Saint John - very long and laden with oil.

Does anyone know the next steps for this grand experiment? The rail yard they built to offload these tanks is being prepared for a big addition.

Was there a separate site being prepared to load LNG-carrying trucks?

Oil from those trains are now being offloaded. Once at full capacity it will unload about 100 - 130 rail cars daily. Each car carries 700 barrels of oil - that works out to 20-30% of the daily capacity of the refinery and at $20 to $30 less per barrel than what's on the ships sitting off of Canaport - well you can do the math - suffice to say this project saved the refinery from meeting the same fate as many refineries in its marketplace. Between Irving, it's maintenance contractors and NB Southern railway and CN, 200 local people have been hired - an example of North American domestic energy creating local jobs. NB Southern itself doubled the size of its locomotive fleet and built several KMs of side lines. The oil is from "orphan" fields from western canada and the Bakkan field in North Dakota - orphan meaning there are no pipelines to ship the oil out of these areas so it is sold at a discount and trucked and railed out. As for expansion, I may be wrong but it appears just to be a containment wall and park land to protect the bay in case of a leak. I haven't heard anything about LNG trains. Apparently Saint John is now the busiest rail terminus in NB beating out Moncton because of the new traffic. ( not trains going through rather terminating)

[Eddy]

Lots of hits on chit chat over this oil initiative..
http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/206844.aspx?sort=ASC&pi332=1

Interesting talk about the financial aspect.. the quicker they can move the oil, the greater return on the investments on rail cars. I wonder what new infrastructure investment in the railway will result. A quote in that link says they have to slow down the train to 10mph at some areas along the way.

Where are these new side lines you mentioned?

[CdnEh]

Originally Posted by Ire Narissis

I liked seeing that view of the Aliant "tower" building (the brick one with the weird-looking communications tower on top) as it looked then. I once worked in there for six months as an operator.

It's still there, of course, and still housing the telco equipment hub for the uptown area, but now it's basically disappeared since three sides of it were blocked off by the Brunswick Square office tower, mall, and parking garage and the fourth side was cladded to match the rest of the complex (kind of ironic that it's being pushed back to brick on the King St. side).

Wait - that building is still there? Where is it?

Is it this one?

[magee_b]

Originally Posted by GregHickman

It would be nice if the Java Moose location on Prince William was open later than 5 or 6. I think it'd be nice to sit and relax there at 9 or 10. Java like sticking to malls and busy indoor areas (City Market, McAllister, UNBSJ). I can't imagine them opening their own standalone location anytime soon unless it's in a strip mall somewhere or they get an unbelievable bargain on a building.

Well, they are testing their standalone model with the location in the valley. So if all goes well there could be a few more that pop up around the region.

[Ire Narissis]

Originally Posted by CdnEh

Wait - that building is still there? Where is it?

Is it this one?

[Image]

That's the one!

If you look down the alley between it and the office tower, or look at it from the top of the parking garage, you can see the sides that are still the original brick walls.

Apparently it's called the tower building because it actually was the tallest building in that block when it was first built, before all the other tall construction sprung up around it... well, presumably that and because it had a radio tower on the roof.

[dhottawa729]

Originally Posted by CdnEh

This parking structure's exterior could use a makeover. It looks very industrial with the exposed steel and cross-bracing. A friendlier-looking treatment would enhance the streetscape tremendously.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by dhottawa729

This parking structure's exterior could use a makeover. It looks very industrial with the exposed steel and cross-bracing. A friendlier-looking treatment would enhance the streetscape tremendously.

This is the parking garage facing Chipman Hill:

Greg Hickman, Flickr.

The picture you're referring to is facing Union Street and it's across from Peel Plaza. It might get a makeover if the cops and crims make a big enough fuss about its look.

[Fischbob]

The parking garage and telephone switches make for a pretty awful pedestrian environment on those blocks of Union and Chipman Hill, and the new police station has only contributed another lifeless wall. We do still have Germain/Wellington Row and Charlotte/Coburg to serve as corridors into the north of Union Area, although both of these streets badly need some mixed-use infill at their respective intersections with Union.

On a somewhat related note, I remember reading in one of the PAC reports for Peel Plaza that traffic lights are planned to be installed at the Union/Wellington and Garden/Coburg intersections. As for when, your guess is as good as mine: I would assume around when the parking garage is completed.

[michael_d40]

Originally Posted by Ire Narissis

That's the one!

If you look down the alley between it and the office tower, or look at it from the top of the parking garage, you can see the sides that are still the original brick walls.

You can kinda see it on Birds Eye. http://binged.it/Ra39aH

[hebertovich]

Another traffic Light ...Good grief!! I think we have by far the most traffic lights per km in useless places than any other city ... Get creative, put in a round about once in a while ? They've worked in Europe forever ! jeez!

Sorry just too many lights in our fair city! I heard there was one going at the end of the new bridge in Rothesay also ?? What a way to wreck the progress of adding new lanes

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Fischbob

On a somewhat related note, I remember reading in one of the PAC reports for Peel Plaza that traffic lights are planned to be installed at the Union/Wellington and Garden/Coburg intersections. As for when, your guess is as good as mine: I would assume around when the parking garage is completed.

I can kind of understand Garden/Coburg, but Union/Wellington? Get over yourselves. Have these people never visited larger cities before and can't deal with traffic that holds them up more than five minutes?

Originally Posted by hebertovich

Another traffic Light ...Good grief!! I think we have by far the most traffic lights per km in useless places than any other city ... Get creative, put in a round about once in a while ? They've worked in Europe forever ! jeez!

I would assume there isn't enough space at Union/Wellington to put in a roundabout. Remember, you're dealing with Saint John here. We have to enter the 20th century first before you even begin to consider roundabouts.

[hebertovich]

Originally Posted by GregHickman

I can kind of understand Garden/Coburg, but Union/Wellington? Get over yourselves. Have these people never visited larger cities before and can't deal with traffic that holds them up more than five minutes?


I would assume there isn't enough space at Union/Wellington to put in a roundabout. Remember, you're dealing with Saint John here. We have to enter the 20th century first before you even begin to consider roundabouts.

LOL totally concure Greg

[Helladog]

I saw on the news tonight, the lighthouse at the Coast Guard site has been removed and sent to Digby. The mayor was hinting this was necessary as the site gets developed. I wonder when the announcement is going to happen...

[Whaler]

Manchester Robinson Allison's (MRA's).

Originally Posted by CdnEh

I was just browsing around the internet and found this interesting pic of uptown pre-Brunswick Square



Anybody know what was on the Brunswick Square site before? What's up with the lack of photos of the building under construction?




Also found these pictures, found them pretty neat... Planned "phase 2" expansion that would double the height:

[CdnEh]

Originally Posted by GregHickman

I can kind of understand Garden/Coburg, but Union/Wellington? Get over yourselves. Have these people never visited larger cities before and can't deal with traffic that holds them up more than five minutes?


I would assume there isn't enough space at Union/Wellington to put in a roundabout. Remember, you're dealing with Saint John here. We have to enter the 20th century first before you even begin to consider roundabouts.

How about we get that string of lights Consumers Drive to properly sync up before we think about adding new ones?

Hell, while we're at it, how about the Rosthesay Ave @ Retail Drive/Ashburn Lake Road lights too?

Lawd.

[Eddy]

Seems to me there were also plans for future expansion potential for an extra floor for the Delta Hotel - the four pillars built to bring the emergency exits up an extra level.

[cdnguys]

Nice example of Gentrification (Queen Square)



Only 1 building left to be renovated on Queen Square and it was sold recently.

[Wrightguy0]

Gentrification will be good for the Uptown, the whole area has a wealth of buildings that are prime for apartments and businesses but have been neglected (not to mention that the more buildings get fixed up the more the city will consider replacing the horrible asphalt sidewalks)