The City of Calgary is currently investigating the feasibility and cost to construct the Airport Trail Underpass beneath the Calgary Airport Authority’s new runway. Administration has been charged by Council to determine the details on construction requirements and timelines.
In the below video, Mayor Nenshi talks about this potential link in Calgary’s northeast quadrant.
More information about the Airport Trail Underpass can be found at calgary.ca/airportunderpass.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
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An airport underpass and connection of Airport Trail from the Airport to Metis Trail and beyond to Stoney Trail is a badly needed project. I live north of the airport and am an employee at the airport. I see congestion at rush hours and whenever there are lots of flights. The current road network always south and east bound traffic to disperse onto Barlow as an optional route, leaving Airport Trail for north and west bound traffic. Cutting off Barlow without another option in place will leave all airport traffic using Airport Trail and all downtown traffic using Deerfoot Trail. This is just a recipe for gridlock and frustration. Just recently, a 20 minute drive from my home to the airport in the morning rush hour took over an hour on Deerfoot! An roadway under the new runway will definitely help alleviate traffic problems for airport and downtown bound traffic, especially as the east and north parts of the city grow! Planning the underpass and roadway now is smart growth planning. Even if the money isn't there to build BOTH the underpass AND the roadway, but there IS money to build just the underpass, that should be done sooner rather than later, because if not, it will be near impossible to do it AFTER the runway is built for many reasons, among them security, safety, and cost! I applaud the Mayor for encouraging council and all the stakeholders to take a serious look at this issue! Thank you for giving us, the people who voted for our new council, the opportunity to express our views on this topic! Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteI agree that there needs to be a connector and the tunnel seems to make the most sense.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that McKnight is already a very busy road at rush hour, and Barlow is arguably just as busy. With the closure of Barlow, all it's traffic will go to McKnight potentially doubling it's use. Not to mention, there is no interchange at McKnight and Barlow which is going to cause huge amounts of congestion there.
The alternative will be taking Deerfoot, 36th or Stony Trail. Deerfoot already has it's own problems and traffic only moves at about 10km/hr during rush hour. 36th is one of the most frustrating streets I've been on (Barlow is next) because of the C-train and the lights not being timed at all. Stony is a long way away from there, and is only useful if you're heading to Balzac or farther.
I can just see massive gridlocks in my future, and I don't see anyone looking at fixing the imminent problems from closing the road.
Excellent post! I agree with Nenshi that this underpass has to be built now. It will generate jobs and solve many traffic problems. It not only affects those who live in the NW but anyone who has to take the Deerfoot during rush hours in the northern parts of the city. 15,000 employees is a lot of traffic and with 12,000,000 travellers a year this enormous traffic volume will generate problems in the future. I am in favour of anything that will reduce traffic especially on Deerfoot. I agree that the construction of the airport underpass can't wait and support Naheed Nenshi as mayor.
ReplyDeleteFully agree that the underpass should be built -- obviously much less cost to build it now than after the runway is built. Also, I sure hope the tunnel they would build would INCLUDE enough room (or a separate tunnel) for LRT transit -- this way visitors and residents would not have to rely on any road to get downtown (which is especially important in the winter with unpredictable weather). Imagine downtown to the airport on LRT in 20 minutes. Cabbies and rush hour be damned.
ReplyDeleteGet 'er done Nenshi. I live in the southeast and will likely rarely ever use the tunnel, but I'm certainly not ignorant to why it is important. I especially think it's nuts that the city has seemingly abandoned a train-to-the-airport (unlike every other major city!). The tunnel is the only reasonably option that keeps that dream alive.
ReplyDeleteDave
Yup, we need that underpass! Hope the Province and Feds see how wise their decision to help fund it would look.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear this needs to be approved and work get started immediately. I am hopeful that the current work Nenshi mentioned is ONLY to validate the costs and timelines. There is no time to through the opprotunity assessment phase yet again. That phase has made it very obvious this city needs the tunnel for the reasons outlined in Nenshi's video statement.
ReplyDeleteOne thing Nenshi did not mention is that this route is required for another very important reason, safety. They city needs to ensure there are multiple routes to/from the airport for emergency services to attend incidents (fire, accidents, etc) In my opinion, this alone makes the new route (tunnel) mandatory. The route from the north down Barlow to the airport is not a diverse route from Airport Trail. Therefore, the city would put people's lives in danger when there is an emergency.
Start this now, take out loans if necessary, keep our city safe and efficient.
Chris
closer barlow tr no make since cus mcknight blvd ne get busy city wood do something mayor nenshi is good mayor we want mayor back agian in next trum cheers up
ReplyDeleteI don't own a car, but I do fly occasionally or need to meet people at the airport. The current transit service is a disgrace. At a minimum, there should be express bus service between the LRT and the airport. Ideally there would be BRT or LRT service to downtown right from the airport. This would alleviate traffic congestion and should be a much higher priority than hundreds of millions for a tunnel. I thought there was also a road north of the new runway that could be improved at much lower cost. What happened to that option?
ReplyDeleteI've been advocating for the tunnel ever since I heard word from Alderman Stevenson about Barlow closing without an adequate replacement to the airport. Council agreed to spend millions extra on the McKnight - Metis trail interchange for the high speed flyover and the province spent similar amounts for the 96th ave interchange on Stony Trail for the same purpose.
ReplyDeleteTo not build the tunnel means the dollars already spent will have been a waste. The road network clogs up badly when deerfoot comes to a standstill and is proof Calgary absolutely needs this piece of infrastructure.
Calgary is a world class city. Let's keep it that way. I fully endorse Ald. Stevenson and Mayor Nenshi in getting the tunnel built.
Jon Calon
In one breath Mayor Nenshi says that on any afternoon the Deerfoot can be something like a parking lot and in the next breath he tells Calgarians that the big open space north of the existing residential there is going to be still more residential and more industrial development. How is that going to improve Deerfoot in the morning and afternoon rush hours?!? How is a road to the airport going to make any difference to Deerfoot given this new urban sprawl? Are all the "thousands" of new residents of the NE going to work at the airport and therefore make use of the new road and underpass? Obviously NO, they are going to mostly use the Deerfoot. This is crazy, and the root of our problems is the unchecked urban sprawl that is making living in this city a costly nightmare with no plans to see this problem controlled. The airport tunnel is a developers dream and that is who is driving this and not the best interests of Calgarians. Mayor Nenshi says we can use more east/west corridors and then he ignores the east/west corridor already in place directly north of this proposed airport corridor - Country Hills Blvd.
ReplyDeleteTo say the airport tunnel is just another underpass is to ignore that aircraft which can get up to 120 tons are going to be landing on top of this thing every day for the next 50 to 100 years. If this tunnel is going to be six or more lanes wide and a kilometer long I wonder how you can safely land passenger and cargo aircraft on top of it with engineering tolerances that are the same as an ordinary underpass. I guess we'll see if His Honour is correct in his assessment that this is just another ordinary underpass - I have my doubts.
This tunnel is really needed. A cut and cover tunnel of almost a kilometer (built with the right materials), should cost less than $100 million. It should not cost $500 million - that is extravagant.
ReplyDeleteNot only do I think the tunnel is needed and should be built now while costs are lower and there is no interference from the new runway, I feel this is an opportunity to try something new.
ReplyDeleteInstead of planning for a C-Train spur line to go under the runway to the airport terminal, I think we should look at this area as a suitable candidate for a PRT system. Personal Rapid Transit uses dedicated narrow roadways for pod-like electric vehicles that can carry 4-6 people at a time. The advantage of PRT over LRT is that you can build a network of roadways at a much lower cost than proper LRT railway. A network like this could be built from one (or more) of the C-Train stops in the NE and tie them to various airport facilities. PRT allows you to choose your destination which means direct travel from your start point to your destination and the network of roadways allows for accidents and closures to route around the problem. PRT is known to be much cheaper to build and maintain per kilometre than almost any other transit option. The narrow roadways can be put beside existing roads and even elevated with little extra expense.
Considering how few people will initially consider transit to the terminal as an option, PRT is a much more effective way to introduce transit to the airport and allows for expansion as demand increases. I foresee that any C-Train spur line that is built will be mostly empty until it catches on and this means much spending for very little return.
I hope the city considers the PRT option once the tunel is built. An operational PRT network could be built in less than a year and at significantly less cost. Win-win! For those who have never seen what PRT is about, start here.
http://www.edmontonprt.com/
Anyone know if McCall Way is still opened? And if so, I'm assuming it closes in April along with Barlow?
ReplyDeleteThanks.