Hwy 99 Fraser River Tunnel (George Massey Replacement) | Proposed

[mukmuk64]

Oh my god those interchanges are a nightmare.

Highway heavens Seattle and Los Angeles have learned their lesson and have turned away from this sort of 20th century thinking. Why is our provincial leadership going full steam with this insane plan?

Waste of land, waste of money.

[Alex Mackinnon]

That sure is a fancy Dogbone Flyover style interchange. The HOV offramp is new, but there wasn't any means of getting buses directly into the bus lanes in the concept.

[mukmuk64]

Why didn't they make a nice model of the part where these 10-11? lanes of traffic all merge into the Oak St Bridge?

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by mukmuk64

Oh my god those interchanges are a nightmare.

Highway heavens Seattle and Los Angeles have learned their lesson and have turned away from this sort of 20th century thinking. Why is our provincial leadership going full steam with this insane plan?

Waste of land, waste of money.

And yet Seattle is still building new highways, major new bridges are still being built and replaced throughout the US (world's widest in San Fran recently opened) and such interchanges can be found and are still being built in major cities throughout the world including Europe, Asia, South America, etc...

Some highways are being taken down (or replaced with new ones) because highways, just like buildings and even train lines, are not static. Some are redundant routes that were never really needed, some have been replaced by superior routes / structures, etc... Just because a few select highways around the world have been taken down does not mean that the importance of highways has diminished. There are still far more highways being built / improved than those that are being taken down. One could extrapolate such thinking to railroads. More have been closed in metro-Vancouver (even Vancouver proper, heck, look at Arbutus!) than built in recent decades, so that must mean that building new rail lines / improving upon existing ones is a waste... wait a minute, nope!

This is the primary north / south corridor in the region, and its importance as a major highway corridor is not going anywhere.

Also, if you looked at the details the footprint of this entire project is near equal in area to the highway's existing footprint. So no real amounts of land will be lost.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by mukmuk64

Why didn't they make a nice model of the part where these 10-11? lanes of traffic all merge into the Oak St Bridge?

Because they don't...

Some are add drop lanes on the bridge itself only connecting the two interchanges on either side of the bridge.

Two are HOV bus lanes that exit to / enter from Bridgeport Skytrain station.

And others exit / start at the 99 / 91 interchange I believe.

Again, actually research the project before making such statements.

[s211]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Also, if you looked at the details the footprint of this entire project is near equal in area to the highway's existing footprint. So no real amounts of land will be lost.

In fact, the current plans are such that there will be a net reduction in the road allowance right-of-way, and the surplus will be surrendered.

[moosejaw]

Those interchanges look fantastic
but i can see those designs scaring the public, esp the granola crowd and esp when they are clamoring for a UBC rapid transit line regardless whether they understand the politics involved.

[Aroundtheworld]

This proposal is insane. It looks like were going back to 1950s thinking with this. What a colossal waste of resources.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

Steveston Hwy interchange:



17A interchange:

Wow, that is impressive, makes my spine tingle! Christy should just make it free to shut up all the moaners who will drone on about the Port Mann comparisons.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld

This proposal is insane. It looks like were going back to 1950s thinking with this. What a colossal waste of resources.

[go_leafs_go02]

Absolutely fantastic. Love how they are integrating the transit a lot better here than the Highway 1 interchange. Steveson is a beast but rightfully so. Glad the province is doing some "big-city" interchanges.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

Steveston Hwy interchange:



17A interchange:

The image seems to have been deleted. Any way of restoring it? Thanx

[officedweller]

Awesome pics, thanks!

I see the exits to and from Rice Mill Road adjacent to the bridge deck approach.
That should get some trucks off of Steveston Highway.

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

Thanks for the pics!! Is the transit/HOV off-ramp new? Don't recall seeing that before. Looks like it's just a single ramp.

Looks like it's new.
The general purpose ramp above (or is that HOV?) would take the buses to the northbound 99 from eastbound 17A.

[Infrequent Poster]

Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld

This proposal is insane. It looks like were going back to 1950s thinking with this. What a colossal waste of resources.

yes gridlock is much better.

[Infrequent Poster]

does anyone know where this ramp goes (the one with the badly drawn arrow)?
It goes under the highway obviously, I just cant figur out where it goes from there. Based on the render it doesnt seem to have enough room to come back out beside the highway heading north....

[IMG][/IMG]

[officedweller]

It goes to Rice Mill Road (industrial park south of Steveston Hwy). There's another northbound on-ramp too.

Marked on this previous post:

Originally Posted by officedweller

I think I found it - there are 2 ramps at Steveston Interchange that disappear -
I think they travel under the north bridge approach to Rice Mill Road.
So there's only access to and from Hwy 99 north (not to the bridge deck).

I've marked them in red on this excerpt:

[Infrequent Poster]

Originally Posted by officedweller

It goes to Rice Mill Road (industrial park south of Steveston Hwy). There's another northbound on-ramp too.

Marked on this previous post:

Thank you. I realize I was looking at the render backwards now too.

[ssiguy]

Huge project and I'm glad they are incorporating BRT lanes. I am concerned how the buses will be able to handle the grade of the bridge. If they are at a full stop and ground level at Steveston, that gives the buses very little room or time to make such a steep grade to a bridge far over the Fraser like the Alex Fraser. When you consider that regular buses have a hard enough time going from Broadway up Little Mountain, this is going to be a hell of a struggle.

The bridge looks great but I still think it's a waste of time and money. Crusty wants a new mega-project under construction in time for the election when all she has to do is add 4 more lanes of tunnel either in 2 tunnels or one wider one.

The public maybe entranced by the new project but their enthusiasm will quickly dissipate when the their $8 or $10/day toll bills start arriving in.

[mukmuk64]

Originally Posted by Infrequent Poster

yes gridlock is much better.

The alternative to this project is not nothing. There are other ways to build a new crossing.

If the politicians were actually focused on moving people and not cars, then you'd see a different, more efficient and cost effective solution.

This sort of car oriented solution has been discredited among planning professionals because it simply doesn't work in the long term. This is why the Metro Region is opposed to this project.

[Infrequent Poster]

Originally Posted by mukmuk64

The alternative to this project is not nothing. There are other ways to build a new crossing.

If the politicians were actually focused on moving people and not cars, then you'd see a different, more efficient and cost effective solution.

This sort of car oriented solution has been discredited among planning professionals because it simply doesn't work in the long term. This is why the Metro Region is opposed to this project.

Ok I'll bite. What would you do instead?