Go Elevated or try for Underground?

  • Work with the province and go with the Elevated option

    Votes: 28 75.7%
  • Try another approach and go for Underground option

    Votes: 6 16.2%
  • Cancel it altogether

    Votes: 1 2.7%
  • Go with a BRT solution

    Votes: 2 5.4%

  • Total voters
    37
Few questions,

and finally, is there renders of how the bridge will be built through the area of the river walk? That is the part of the bridge I'm mainly concerned with.

We get one look at the bridge over the pathway in Eau Claire from this tweet yesterday:


I'd like them to take a good look at examples around the world on how to activate the space under the bridge. Even something as simple as some swings that are mounted to the bottom of the bridge can make a huge difference in the feel of the space.
 
I really wish that the council would pull the stick out of their ass and just terminate at Eau Claire until the funding in there for the north segment. I cannot put into words how much I hate the bridge over the river.
 
From the Greenline Engagement site: https://engage.calgary.ca/greenline Which I encourage everyone with an opinion to interact with.

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So they are planning a 9 Ave Station now according to those pics? That's a station right in front of the Tigerstadt Block
 
Looking at the overview schematics I like the center street surface alignment - until it gets to 16th ave where it needs to be grade separated. The bridges and interaction with the island and pathway are just ok (really what other option is there at this point). However looking at the schematic of the 2nd st station & alignment over princess island it looks like those condos with green roofs will need to go and a big chunk of eau claire (so long garage). They are planning on cutting off 3rd ave from 2nd st and creating a one way north on 2nd too, I used to work with a view of that intersection and everyday during rush hour it is very busy with commuters using that connection to get the lower level bridge. I think you'd have some serious gridlock there.
 
I know the Eau Market redevelopment is a ways away yet, but I hope they design the Eau Claire station with the option of having it attached to the new development somehow. It's hard to tell from the renderings, but it appears there is no auto traffic on the west side of the station which should make integration easy enough.
 
I am just floored by how backward the city has went on this. I'm so angry at those images my eyes might be bleeding. Jesus.
 
I didn’t look hard enough..., I see there is a station planned for Eau Claire

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Isn't this literally where Eau Claire market is right now on the right? Are they knocking it down for the green line? There's also a bunch of Parkade entrances on 2 St for those condos, wondering how that works in this configuration.

 
Attended the open house tonight and picked up some info that might answer some of the questions people have been asking here.

- Yes there will be a station at Eau Claire. The city is in discussion with Harvard about using the eastern portion of the Eau Claire market land for a portion of the Eau Claire station. This would be tied in with the redesign of Harvard's plans for Eau Claire and the demolition of the existing Eau Claire market building.

- It sounds like there is a good chance the River Run condos (the suburban looking condos with the green roofs) will be acquired and demolished as part of Green Line construction. This opens opportunities for further Eau Claire market development or public realm improvements along the river pathway.

- The tunnel portal will be located just north of 3 Ave SW. The open house had some pretty cool concepts for the south side of the tunnel portal that included a grand staircase into the existing +15, a commercial space or a pocket park.

- Regardless of whether or not construction of Stage 1 terminates downtown or at 16th Ave we will be getting a bridge over the river. There appeared to be some confusion at the open house as people believed it was solely a budget issue that caused the tunnel to be dropped from the plans when in reality a tunnel under the river requires a tunnel boring machine and an extremely deep station at Eau Claire and 7th Ave, with both issues having enough technical red flags as to have been completely rejected by the city.

- 9th Ave station at Crescent Heights is a strong maybe. In order to make 9th Ave station work without major property impacts the city would have to build a 'side running' design at that location. Side running essentially means that the station is incorporated into the sidewalk and vehicular traffic occupies the middle two lanes. There are a couple of issues with this they are working through. 1: a side running design requires traffic to turn right, across the tracks which introduces risk or requires right turn movements to be eliminated. 2: Since 16 Ave station will serve as a temporary terminus the optimal design is for a centre running design/platform which requires the train to switch between the two somewhere around 12th Ave. Apparently this is done quite successfully in Waterloo's new LRT system but adds some complexity.

- No decision has been made yet on whether or not 16th Ave will be grade separated as part of a future expansion. This decision may not be made by April.
 
- 9th Ave station at Crescent Heights is a strong maybe. In order to make 9th Ave station work without major property impacts the city would have to build a 'side running' design at that location. Side running essentially means that the station is incorporated into the sidewalk and vehicular traffic occupies the middle two lanes. There are a couple of issues with this they are working through. 1: a side running design requires traffic to turn right, across the tracks which introduces risk or requires right turn movements to be eliminated. 2: Since 16 Ave station will serve as a temporary terminus the optimal design is for a centre running design/platform which requires the train to switch between the two somewhere around 12th Ave. Apparently this is done quite successfully in Waterloo's new LRT system but adds some complexity.

You can see Waterloo's crossover here:
kingLRT.jpg
 

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