archited
Senior Member
Seems to me, @Daveography, that, if they can shut it down for 2 years, then they should be able to close it permanently -- at least with whatever accommodations are being put in place for 2 years.
'Rathole,' tunnel or skyway? Council set to debate tricky west LRT options
City officials are finalizing plans for the west LRT line and struggling with how to avoid snarling traffic at 149 Street.
One option could make a new “rathole” — sending north-south traffic under an LRT track at grade.
Another fix — putting the track on stilts as it follows Stony Plain Road — could force officials to expropriate local businesses and create an unfriendly concrete monolith for an eight-block stretch of the commercial district.
After a full design review for the 14-km west leg of the Valley Line LRT, city officials are poised to send three options to council. The third and most expensive option is tunnelling along Stony Plain Road.
The option of sinking 149 Street rather than the track itself is new, introduced at an open house in November and still spreading through the neighbourhood.
“You mean like a rathole? A rathole would be bad,” said Michael MacFynn, marketing manager for nearby Revolution Cycle, remembering how 109 Street used to tunnel under CN rail yards north of 104 Avenue. It was notoriously ugly. MacFynn worries it would flood.
Cost estimates for each option are heading to council in February.
“I wouldn’t want to be making that decision, I tell you. It’s a tough one,” said Diane Kereluk, head of the local business association.
An elevated guideway with heavy concrete supports running from 146 to 154 streets would not be pedestrian friendly, Kereluk said. It could also require more land, destroying local shops and undermining years of work revitalizing the area.
An elevated guideway for the west leg of the Valley Line LRT could look similar to this, covering a span from 146 to 154 streets to avoid traffic at 149 Street along Stony Plain Road. SUPPLIED / CITY OF EDMONTON
Businesses are toying with yet another solution — leave the train at grade and simply make Stony Plain Road a one-way westbound street, she said.
Nearby 100 Avenue could handle eastbound traffic, leaving businesses intact and still delivering essential evening traffic to their doors. It could simplify the 149 Street crossing.
City officials call the new underpass option an urban-style interchange. It would include multiple traffic lanes, sidewalks, access ramps and retaining walls. Whether north-south traffic could access Stony Plain Road from the 149 Street underpass would depend on how much extra land council expropriates.
Valley Line LRT construction to close 85 Street in Bonnie Doon
CITY OF EDMONTON / METRO WEB UPLOAD
Due to Valley Line LRT construction, 85 Street south will close to traffic for 18 months.
As construction continues on the Valley Line LRT, 85 Street in Bonnie Doon is getting set to close to make way.
Starting Jan. 20, the street—which is one of the spokes leading out of the traffic circle near Bonnie Doon Mall—will be closed off, from the traffic circle to 88 Avenue, according to a city release.
It is scheduled to be closed for 18 months.
The traffic circle will be eventually be replaced with a four-way intersection.
Proposal would make part of Stony Plain Road a one-way street to save LRT costs
Rendering of the Valley Line LRT west Glenora stop.
Credit: City of Edmonton
An idea is being floated that would see a section of Edmonton’s Stony Plain Road — westbound between 149 and 156 streets — become a one-way.
The new proposal has emerged from some businesses in west Edmonton as a way to help keep traffic moving, and keep construction costs down for the $1.8-billion Valley Line LRT.
Councillor Andrew Knack confirmed Monday that he has now written deputy city manager Adam Laughlin, asking city staff to consider that as an option when a report comes to city council in March.
The proposal suggests having two stretches of one-way traffic in each direction, a block apart.
“The thinking behind that is, 100 Avenue is already heavily used by most commuter traffic, ” Knack said in an interview.
Comments without ever having been to those neighbourhoods before or after of course. Short tunnels under high throughput intersections seems sensible.They really hate the idea of an elevated line... my goodness. Because it's done so terrible in Vancouver and Calgary and just destroyed neighbourhoods lol.
My biggest issue with the debate right now is that the people with the strongest opinions on how it should be designed are coming from the people the least likely to actually use it.
Comments without ever having been to those neighbourhoods before or after of course. Short tunnels under high throughput intersections seems sensible.
As for reducing the number of lanes and creating one ways, wasn't that a main reason why the BRT proposal a decade+ back collapsed?
Stop-work order lifted on portion of Valley Line LRT project
A stop-work order issued by Occupational Health and Safety on a portion of the Valley Line LRT has been lifted.
The order was lifted Monday night after an inspection to ensure contractor TransEd was in compliance, Matt Dykstra, a spokesman for Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray, said Wednesday.
“They were able to make a shelter within the tunnel where workers would be protected should the tunnel be blocked in any form,” Dykstra said. “And they ensured proper availability of a breathing apparatus and respiratory protection should there be any blockage of airflow into the tunnel.”