Saskatoon Construction II - Page 51

Echoes · #**1001** Posted **Sep 9, 2011, 7:22 PM**

The corner space on the main floor of the KG has been leased.... previously home to that "abby's", and the temporary SaskTel Store.

Hopefully it's something good and it sticks around.

drm310 · #**1002** Posted **Sep 10, 2011, 1:17 PM**

Digital arts group pulls out of bid

By David Hutton, The StarPhoenix
September 9, 2011

The group backing a digital arts centre for the Mendel Art Gallery building has pulled out of the running to occupy the space, leaving only the children’s museum bidding.

The organizers behind the Frederick Mendel Digital Arts Centre of Excellence said Friday after a summer of consideration, the city’s concept for the building and the Kinsmen Park area doesn’t fit its plans.

“We still want our project to go forward in some form,” said Anand Ramayya, owner of Karma Film, a Saskatoon-based production company involved in the bid. [...]

Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/travel/Digital+arts+group+pulls/5379059/story.html

TheCricket · #**1003** Posted **Sep 12, 2011, 4:17 PM**

So I asked at the Starbucks on 8th yesterday (Winners/Staples parking lot) to see if they were relocating or really adding another store front that close to the other. The young woman said they were keeping both as the current one is good for drive through, while the other will be a great space to go and sit. No open date yet, but it is going into the Louis the 8th mall. The sign indicating its arrival is up already.

North_Regina_Boy · #**1004** Posted **Sep 12, 2011, 6:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCricket

Ens Toyota is moving to the Auto Mall by the summer of 2012.

As businesses move off Circle North the land should be aquired by the city to ensure that no new businesses are built here and in time allow Circle north to become a freeway once again!

Damn I hate driving on that stretch of road, can't wait for South Bridge to be done!

nook · #**1005** Posted **Sep 12, 2011, 7:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by North_Regina_Boy

As businesses move off Circle North the land should be aquired by the city to ensure that no new businesses are built here and in time allow Circle north to become a freeway once again!

Damn I hate driving on that stretch of road, can't wait for South Bridge to be done!

Agreed.

Although the chance of that ever happening is slim... it would be incredibly nice to have an actual freeway...

That'd make Saskatoon much easier to drive through.

Dalreg · #**1006** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 12:28 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by North_Regina_Boy

As businesses move off Circle North the land should be aquired by the city to ensure that no new businesses are built here and in time allow Circle north to become a freeway once again!

Damn I hate driving on that stretch of road, can't wait for South Bridge to be done!

The cost of converting 42nd street to freeway would be measured in the billions! What would be done with all the cross streets? The number of overpasses would be huge.

Probably cheaper in the long run to tunnel from Avenue C to Warman Road. How cool would that be!

JCA · #**1007** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 12:40 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalreg

The cost of converting 42nd street to freeway would be measured in the billions! What would be done with all the cross streets? The number of overpasses would be huge.

Probably cheaper in the long run to tunnel from Avenue C to Warman Road. How cool would that be!

That would be pretty cool, but they're just gonna build the north bridge and the perimeter highway and hope that will suffice.

Treesplease · #**1008** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 4:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalreg

The cost of converting 42nd street to freeway would be measured in the billions! What would be done with all the cross streets? The number of overpasses would be huge.

Probably cheaper in the long run to tunnel from Avenue C to Warman Road. How cool would that be!

That would be very cool and likely will happen at some point - probably not in my life time. Overpasses would be minimized if they went with service roads and fewer access points/overpasses. It is the expropriation of property to make way for the service access roads that would be cost prohibitive in the less than 30yr time frame.

Once the south bridge opens, the volume of traffic (trucks) taking left turns off circle onto 11 north as opposed to their current right turn is going to really congest things.

Echoes · #**1009** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 5:09 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Treesplease

Once the south bridge opens, the volume of traffic (trucks) taking left turns off circle onto 11 north as opposed to their current right turn is going to really congest things.

Oh yikes, I never thought of that! So the opening of the South Bridge could accelerate the need for a North Bridge.... Ironic.

blacktrojan3921 · #**1010** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 5:28 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalreg

The cost of converting 42nd street to freeway would be measured in the billions! What would be done with all the cross streets? The number of overpasses would be huge.

Probably cheaper in the long run to tunnel from Avenue C to Warman Road. How cool would that be!

Like... A subway system?

Chadillaccc · #**1011** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 5:53 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

Like... A subway system?

The population of Saskatoon, not to mention the weak density, couldn't even support a subway system a kilometer long.

He meant an underground freeway.

However, it would be cool to see Sask and Reg both start planning inter-city streetcar systems.

blacktrojan3921 · #**1012** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 7:47 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

The population of Saskatoon, not to mention the weak density, couldn't even support a subway system a kilometer long.

He meant an underground freeway.

However, it would be cool to see Sask and Reg both start planning inter-city streetcar systems.

Well it does not hurt to dream, besides with SK's economic boom and the country's large increase in population thanks to immigration. It is not hard to imagine a subway system/LRT system coming to any of these two cities between 50-100 years.

circle33 · #**1013** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 3:43 PM**

Big, big news...well maybe not big, but it is news:

Condo proposal on Main approved

Main Street is getting a new condominium complex.

City council approved a rezoning application for BlackRock Developments Ltd. on Monday.

Three houses will be bulldozed to make way for a 24-unit, four-storey condominium building with an underground parkade.

Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/C...pproved/5391887/story.html#ixzz1XqZtbWIt

The Developer's (poorly maintained) Website. No mention of this project here just yet. They seem to specialize in suburban residential construction -- quite adept at the yapping garage door style. I hope they will be sensitive to the existing neighbourhood with this project.

Echoes · #**1014** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 3:46 PM**

^ Building elevations included in last night's City Council agenda seem to indicate that the development will be sensitive to the neighbourhood. It looked pretty decent, I thought.

circle33 · #**1015** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 4:00 PM**

Good to hear. There's been a lot of infill in that part of town over the past couple of years and most of it has meshed in pretty well.

socialisthorde · #**1016** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 9:01 PM**

I find it ironic that we don't question doling out imense amounts of money for freeways, bridges etc. with only vague indications as to economic benefit, while we somehow think it ridiculous that Saskatoon could build a subway or some other form of rapid transit. It only seems ridiculous due to lack of imagination. At least the users of transit can be asked for some form of payment. We spend billions on roadways with no way to charge users and therefore no measure of accountability for use. The "tragedy of the commons" comes to mind.

If you had asked someone a hundred years ago, before cars, if it would make sense to pave hundreds of miles of the city and spend millions more maintaing and clearing snow from it, they would have laughed as well. Yes, it would be more convenient to have a freeway all the way around the city, but think how much more convenient, and cleaner and healthier and sustainable and generally cooler it would be to have rapid transit. We seriously need a change in mindset as a culture.

CCF · #**1017** Posted **Sep 13, 2011, 10:33 PM**

For the record, Kitchener-Waterloo is going ahead with LRT (with BRT down to Cambridge). Lots of naysayers believe that KW is too small for LRT, but good on them for being progressive.

KW as a city is less than Regina and Saskatoon combined. They are definitely a leader when it comes to transportation planning for mid-sized Canadian cities.

North_Regina_Boy · #**1018** Posted **Sep 15, 2011, 2:31 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalreg

The cost of converting 42nd street to freeway would be measured in the billions! What would be done with all the cross streets? The number of overpasses would be huge.

Probably cheaper in the long run to tunnel from Avenue C to Warman Road. How cool would that be!

Haha I was actually talking about that today. But What I would suggest would be to put one overpass at Quebec Ave one at Miller, and create a proper interchange at Idylwyle, close the road at C and build an interchange at Airport and then have traffic have limited access to that area there. Then turn the rest of the streets that run into Circle to cul-de-sacs. Have service roads off of Quebec and miller to serve the streets turned into cul-de-sacs. That way we could maintain a 90km/h speed limit along the whole thing. Also we wouldn't have to impact as many businesses as would be required, and it would significantly change the whole dynamic of travel in the north end of town.

Bigger businesses that would be affected would be:

- Travelodge
- Midel Honda & Hyundai ( But would probably relocate to automall anyway)
- Tony Romas

Some small stores would have to change their access to the back but that could be done.

For safety issues have a tall 15-20 foot sound wall on both sides of the freeway with a large concrete barrier in the middle. As well as pedestrian overpasses at a few of the cul-de-sacs.

As this is already zoned commercial district noise problems would be minimal as the closest residents are about 300-500 metres away and the sound walls would stop most of the noise.

That is my two cents. Lets hope that something gets done!

Echoes · #**1019** Posted **Sep 15, 2011, 2:35 PM**

Wall speeds up north bridge
'15 years is too long to wait'

By Janet French, The StarPhoenix September 15, 2011 8:37 AM

Quote:

Premier Brad WallPhotograph by: Richard Marjan, The StarPhoenixPremier Brad Wall says if voters re-elect his Saskatchewan Party government, he will push to speed up a north river crossing in Saskatoon.

In an election campaign-style speech during which he painted an NDP-led Saskatchewan as one that would put the province's prosperity in jeopardy, Wall told a North Saskatoon Business Association luncheon Wednesday he means to speed up the timeline for building the proposed perimeter highway around Saskatoon.

"I've been on Idylwyld and on the Circle, and I know that this is Canada's fastest growing city," Wall said. "You can see it when you're driving around. And 15 years is too long to wait for this new bridge."

If re-elected, the province intends to sit down with the city, and hopefully the federal government, and "see if there's some innovation" they can use to move the timeline ahead "a little bit," Wall told reporters.

When asked how long "a little bit" is, Wall indicated 12 or even eight years for the project's completion is too far away.

The proposed perimeter road project is much more than a bridge spanning the river in Saskatoon's far north end. A concept plan approved by both city council and the provincial Highways Ministry shows a freeway allowing highway traffic to bypass the city completely. The hypothetical freeway loops around three-quarters of the city from Highway 11 in the south curving around to Highway 14 in the west. It includes about 10 proposed overpasses or interchanges with other highways or major arteries and several dozen kilometres of new highway.

[....]

Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Wall+speeds+north+bridge/5405307/story.html#ixzz1Y224JRMZ

Ricopedra · #**1020** Posted **Sep 15, 2011, 5:51 PM**

Hello, Good Folks of Saskatoon!

I'm not new to the forum, but I haven't always posted thoughtfully. Sorry about that. I sort of read along and enjoy the photo tours and the updates on developments.

I was born in Mayfair, of all places, to German immigrants. The U of S is my Alma Matter. I moved away almost exactly 20 years ago and you know, you can never leave home. It's just, I don't know where that is, really. That's why I keep looking back, I guess.

One thing I'd really be interested in is a ratio of land consumption to population growth in Saskatoon. The good news I hear on this forum just makes me sit back and smile. But the news about, or thoughts or ideas for making the suburbs the king of the prairies, just makes me want to hurl. Spending even a dime to start a tunnel for traffic in such a spread-out city is an unfathomable thought. You guys sound like the super-highway promoters in Vancouver in the 60's and 70's who, by the way, were unsuccessful, thank god. If you don't know it yet, highways of convenience make city living VERY inconvenient! There must be a better way of thinking. From afar, take care and good luck with that!