[Fredericton] Downtown Thread

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

Interesting. What are the city's plans with the onramps?

The long-term plan is to get rid of the ramps and reconstruct parts of Campbell Street. Realistically I don't think that will happen until we get a third bridge upriver.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

Interesting. What are the city's plans with the onramps?

I'm not sure if there is a newer plan, but this was the proposal back in Feb 2015. You can skip down to around Page 56ish for the plans for St Anne's Point Drive.

Basically the city would like to remove the cloverleafs. They would extend Northumberland, York and Carleton to St Anne's Point Drive, and add signaled intersections.

They would also rebuild Campbell Street (the street going from York to the police station) to go from York to Northumberland, with a signaled intersection at Westmoreland at the base of the bridge. (Page 58 for the map)

[Franco401]

This was a visualization I made about 3 years ago for what the waterfront would look like if the plan were fully implemented.

Final version of the City Centre Plan adopted by Council



There are a few changes since I made this, namely the Legion development and All Wheel Sports Park. Either way, this is the endgame of bringing back Campbell Street.

[MonctonRad]

Great conceptualization!

My only concern is with regards to flooding during the spring freshet.

[Franco401]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Great conceptualization!

My only concern is with regards to flooding during the spring freshet.

What's the consensus on what will happen to the flooding if the Mactaquac project ends up removing the dam and restoring the river to its natural state? All of the worst floods in the city's history have been after the river was supposedly under control.

Also, all the large buildings in that view are supposed to include underground parking.

[Franco401]

Here's the file I used for that map, with a couple extra updates and details for each site.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eJj...ew?usp=sharing

Once again, this can be downloaded and opened in Google Earth for Desktop or the newer Web App. I'll probably exclusively use the Web App if they'd make it easier to share, or when the Earth Studio feature becomes public.

[Taeolas]

I wonder, if the clover leafs were removed from Westmoreland, if they would make Westmoreland 2 lanes coming up onto the bridge (northbound). That is something they did a couple of years ago during the flooding, when the Smythe street onramp loop was closed off due to the flooding, and traffic flowed surprisingly well. With the proposal, Smythe street traffic going to the bridge would likely be flowing mainly Brunswick or King to Westmoreland anyways, so the extra capacity would probably be needed. The other onramp from St Anne's would then likely need to become a merge instead of having its own lane.

As for the rest of that proposal linked above; I like the overall feel for it. Flooding for the infill around Campbell Street might be a bit of an issue, but as long as the foundations are solid and it has good drainage (or it is flood-durable like the All Wheels Plaza), it should be good.

Though personally I don't really see the space between City Hall and the river filling in much yet. The parking spaces are really needed (even if we build a new garage/rebuild Kings Place's garage to its full height), and the open space is also valuable for Harvest and other festivals (especially now that the All Wheels has taken one of the tent areas). Filling in the space on the other side of Westmoreland (behind the legion building basically) could be feasible and be no more flood-risky than the current buildings there.

As for Mactaquac, I'm pretty sure the dam isn't going anywhere, not in the next 10-20 years at least, unless something really catastrophic happens. Part of the reason flooding has been worse since the dam is because of global warming, and because we have so much downtown now, leaving less room for the water to go. And one of our worst floods is still pre-dam IIRC. That sewer work they did on St Anne's last fall is supposed to help with the overall drainage of downtown. I believe they are hopeful that Brunswick street in particular won't flood in the future. That was always a strange area to flood considering how far it is from the river compared to the other flood areas.

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I wonder, if the clover leafs were removed from Westmoreland, if they would make Westmoreland 2 lanes coming up onto the bridge (northbound). That is something they did a couple of years ago during the flooding, when the Smythe street onramp loop was closed off due to the flooding, and traffic flowed surprisingly well. With the proposal, Smythe street traffic going to the bridge would likely be flowing mainly Brunswick or King to Westmoreland anyways, so the extra capacity would probably be needed. The other onramp from St Anne's would then likely need to become a merge instead of having its own lane.

I think it's more likely that traffic would shift over to Regent rather than Westmorland. So if you're coming from uptown and going to the Northside you'd probably choose to take Regent, rather than coming down Smythe and having to go over to Westmorland.

Either that, or you'd take the eventual third bridge that would be located somewhat upriver.

As for Mactaquac, I'm pretty sure the dam isn't going anywhere, not in the next 10-20 years at least, unless something really catastrophic happens. Part of the reason flooding has been worse since the dam is because of global warming, and because we have so much downtown now, leaving less room for the water to go. And one of our worst floods is still pre-dam IIRC. That sewer work they did on St Anne's last fall is supposed to help with the overall drainage of downtown. I believe they are hopeful that Brunswick street in particular won't flood in the future. That was always a strange area to flood considering how far it is from the river compared to the other flood areas.

Brunswick Street is just the low point of downtown, just how Winslow Street is the low point of St. Anne's Point. The flooding in those areas is caused moreso by the storm sewers backing up when the river is high. I do know that the city did install back flow valves in the Winslow Street area, so in theory that should mitigate the flood risk quite a bit.

[McKay]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Though personally I don't really see the space between City Hall and the river filling in much yet. The parking spaces are really needed (even if we build a new garage/rebuild Kings Place's garage to its full height), and the open space is also valuable for Harvest and other festivals (especially now that the All Wheels has taken one of the tent areas).

I always have a hard time accepting that we should preserve a parking lot on prime riverfront land so that a tent can be put up for one week every year. (Of course, how "prime" the land is is a matter of opinion! I belong to the school of thought that you can design and build for whatever amount of flooding you need to if you want to spend the money.)

And one of our worst floods is still pre-dam IIRC.

Yes. I don't think the dam was ever designed to mitigate flooding. Every spring people imagine that the answer to it all is just use the dam to hold the river back, and every year someone from NB Power explains on the radio that this isn't even close to being technically feasible.

[Taeolas]

Not necessarily keeping it for Parking, but maybe designing it for something non-building.

I doubt there is enoguh space, but maybe designing it for a semi-permanent concert site might be worth it, as an extension of the Thursday Night Market space near the library/officer's square.

Something like Darling's Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor maybe, set up in conjunction with a new parking garage to offset the parking loss.

Some building in that area should be done and would be worthwhile. In fact now that I look at it, the east cloverleaf area might be perfect for a new Provincial Courthouse to anchor that side of the bridge.

But otherwise, IMO downtown densification should probably start inching further inland, while leaving the shore clearer for flood mitigation and human-focused activity

[NB_ExistsToo]

I didn't bother taking a photo of the Noory Engineering job, they're still only forming the 1st level columns.

Here's an updated photo of the Promenade on Queen.
20210206_131809 by Optimus Prime, on Flickr

Also the facade of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery:

20210206_131235 by Optimus Prime, on Flickr

And finally some fun little ice sculptures along Queen (I didn't know this was a thing, as I just moved here to Fredericton )

20210206_132227 by Optimus Prime, on Flickr

20210206_132031 by Optimus Prime, on Flickr

20210206_131919 by Optimus Prime, on Flickr

[Taeolas]

Yup, this is the second or 3rd year for the Ice Sculptures. It's part of the Frostival Winter festival the city puts on; a way to gather the community and have some fun. Glad they were able to do the ice sculpting again this year.

I think Promenade on Queen is getting close to topping out. Not sure if they'll go up one more floor or just roof off what they have now, but framing should be almost complete. They should start closing off the building soon which will really start filling in that block. Glad we were able to get that sort of structure downtown.

[Taeolas]

Design firm picked for the Playhouse remodel

Not much new info on it at this time, but there are some renders on what might be happening at the site.



If this is their planned look, then the building will continue to be distinctive in the Freddy cityscape.

[OliverD]

Would be interesting to see the use of mass timber for this building.

[Freddypop]

Freddy seems to be holding its own re office vacancy rate:

https://huddle.today/fredericton-com...pite-pandemic/

[Freddypop]

Doesn't appear there has been a lot of progress on the new build on the former Legion site. Drove by today and I could swear it looked to be at the same stage as at Xmas

[Taeolas]

I noticed that as well; I wonder if they were taking a winter break due to weather and/or just trying to get workers to work in the cold?

That said I think I saw a backhoe clearing snow around the site the other day so maybe they're getting ready to go again with the warming weather.

[cl812]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I noticed that as well; I wonder if they were taking a winter break due to weather and/or just trying to get workers to work in the cold?

That said I think I saw a backhoe clearing snow around the site the other day so maybe they're getting ready to go again with the warming weather.

Was by there this afternoon and work has restarted.

Also, steel is starting to go up at the art gallery expansion.

[Freddypop]

Originally Posted by cl812

Was by there this afternoon and work has restarted.

Also, steel is starting to go up at the art gallery expansion.

Yep...was by the Legion build this aft and construction in full swing. They were pouring concrete when I went by

[Bishop2047]

https://huddle.today/downtown-freder...-already-full/

The nine story apartment under construction downtown is already full (scheduled completion in 2022). Hopefully we keep getting high rise apartments in the core, as demand is clearly there.