Out of Towner
Active Member
City council is seeking more information about removing the long-defunct train overpass on 97th Street. The Chinatown Transformation Collaborative says the community welcomes its removal.
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- Thread starter Out of Towner
- Start date
Wax
New Member
I completely understand and agree with that sentiment but it’s a shame as it had a lot of potential (and still does) without needing to tear it down. Whatever happens change is needed.
David A
Senior Member
EdmTrekker
Senior Member
I want it torn down and connectivity to Chinatown completed.
Out of Towner
Active Member
Same here. Get rid of it. It has no practical purpose. The underpass may have some sentimental value for a few people but opening that artery would have a positive impact on mobility and the social barrier that it currently represents.
David A
Senior Member
I realize demolition always seems to be the most Edmonton thing to do, but we need to compare the cost to maintain and improve it vs. demolishing it, also considering the disruption involved.
thefreezebreeze
New Member
could instead turn it into a pedestrian overpass/plaza
northlands
Senior Member
There was a community garden that existed on it for a brief period but I'll let you take a guess what happened.
The only feasible reason to keep it would be if Qualico wanted it for integration into a later phase of the eastern Station Park lands, but that's probably minimum decades away, and they may change their mind anyway. So what exactly is the reason to keep it beyond the cost of demo'ing, filling and rebuilding the road bed?
ChazYEG
Senior Member
out of the many things I see reason to be nostalgic of, this is definitely not one of them. I honestly perceive it as a very big divider between "new" Chinatown, "old" Chinatown and the rest of downtown. It doesn't feel safe walking/biking either under or over it, it serves absolutely no purpose and any disruption that might come from removing it will likely be more than compensated by the benefits of it
ChazYEG
Senior Member
out of the many things I see reason to be nostalgic of, this is definitely not one of them. I honestly perceive it as a very big divider between "new" Chinatown, "old" Chinatown and the rest of downtown. It doesn't feel safe walking/biking either under or over it, it serves absolutely no purpose and any disruption that might come from removing it will likely be more than compensated by the benefits of it
David A
Senior Member
The cost is exactly the reason, for a city that complains it does not have enough money to do all the capital projects required now.
All the disorder that happened downtown after the city's attention shifted elsewhere after the area was built and during COVID seems to be abating some now. Also there are funds targeted particularly at Chinatown now to deal with improve things. So perhaps this is the time to revisit either the community garden or something else that could work here.
I realize this answer will not appeal to the spend money crowd in the city government, but they need to choose where to spend wisely now
Edmcowboy11
Senior Member
Well as far as I know they could tear the bridge down but there would only be so much of re-grading of the road due to the RAM
Out of Towner
Active Member
If only somebody could have asked if the underpass was going to be there forever. It's a perfect example of poor planning and communication between the City and the Province. It's not like somebody had to predict something 100 years down the road. The condition of the underpass is obvious and that building is new, and it's a mistake should have never happened.
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whattheheck
Active Member
^But, it's the most Edmonton thing you can do...
This city itself is often its own worst enemy.
This city itself is often its own worst enemy.
kcantor
Senior Member
For some history on who “owns” the bridge see post 223 from this thread:
https://skyrisecities.com/forum/thr...-boyle-street-manasc-isaac.27047/post-2233603
For reflection:
Qualico offered to demolish the bridge and revise the parkade and redesign the east end of Station Lands if the city and the province would resculpt the west edges of Mary Burley Park, the multi use path and the Remand Centre.
As the street couldn’t come fully up to grade because of the RAM, the building lobbies at that end were “dropped” to be two plus stories in height and accessed from both sides and street oriented retail was added to that end of the parkade.
Taking out the bridge itself could be done in a weekend. Removing abutments on both sides would take additional time but wouldn’t require full road closure. The most disruptive piece from a timing perspective would be raising the road bed to the current sidewalk level (see above post from the RAM thread on that limitation) but there are no deep services or other utilities that would need to be addressed.
The offer was declined…
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