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General Construction Updates
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
cameronhowe
Active Member
Captured a quick shot of all the mission bridge (and area) construction yesterday. I could find the plan for it on the city site but couldn't see any renders of what they're doing. Are they going to be similar improvements to the east side that they made a few years ago?
Urb
Active Member
I was wondering this too. Really glad to see that old rusty railing disappear!
Mountain Man
Senior Member
Just looks like repair work so far.
I don't know much about concrete, but the spiderweb of cracks on that bridge always freaked me out (you can see them just to the right of the middle of the photo). Glad this repair is happening
Mountain Man
Senior Member
Superficial cracks aren't a big deal, but over time water gets into those cracks and rots the concrete. This bridge is likely pretty old, so definitely in need of a refresh.
cameronhowe
Active Member
1875
Senior Member
its going to be completely closed for several months in the future. not sure but maybe starting in the new year.
cameronhowe
Active Member
Which is nuts cause from what I could see, there's not much for a pathway detour. I saw people jumping onto elbow drive to run and rollerblade around the barricades.
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
There is no detour. I've had to change my route to work to go through Mount Royal as I try to avoid 5th south of 17th Ave.
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maestro
Senior Member
Subsidizing suburbs is overplayed whataboutism. It shouldn't matter if its subsidizing downtown or a suburban business park
Bailing out commercial property owners is par for the course. Major commercial developments get subsidizes at the best of times. Of course, other cities are going to use Calgary to sell the idea of adding life to hollowed out downtowns to taxpayers. What is up for debate is whether these property owners would sit on their vacant depreciating portfolios over the next decade while the city continues to experience record growth and housing development. You can only hold off the write downs for so long.
Bailing out commercial property owners is par for the course. Major commercial developments get subsidizes at the best of times. Of course, other cities are going to use Calgary to sell the idea of adding life to hollowed out downtowns to taxpayers. What is up for debate is whether these property owners would sit on their vacant depreciating portfolios over the next decade while the city continues to experience record growth and housing development. You can only hold off the write downs for so long.
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
The ultimate plan as I understand it is to keep 3 lanes but rather than the crazy wide SB lane to have much wider ped/bike space on both sides. They're doing both sides in the end.
It's the third bridge in the area; the first was wood, then it was replaced with steel, then it was replaced with concrete in 1912/1915 (the project website has both years). It's one of the oldest concrete bridges in the province; the Centre Street Bridge was built in 1916.
After this phase with the west side closed and two-way car traffic on the east side, there's a similar phase with the east side closed and two-way on the west side; the project site says through "fall 2024"; if the west side finishes soon and the east side takes the same 3ish months, that would go into November. Then the third phase running into Spring 2025 has no auto traffic, but will still have pedestrian and bike traffic across.
On paper, the detour is to cross Elbow, proceed on the north side sidewalk for two blocks, then cross back But the sidewalk (especially the residential block) is narrow, has big hedges on one side and power poles on the other side; I'm not sure if a bike could even reasonably cycle it; I know for sure two bikes couldn't meet. It's a pretty heavily used path; it would have been a lot safer for there to be an on-road pathway during construction, as there was during the height of the pandemic. Elbow's not that busy a road; I'm sure it could handle a reduction in lanes for a few weeks, especially in the summer when traffic is down and active travel is up.
1875
Senior Member
Ive been using the pedestrian bridge over the river at 31st ave and Rideau road to the mission bridge
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
Speaking of which, here's a construction update on the Mission bridge and retaining wall work from a different than usual vantage point.
Urb
Active Member
It's too bad they didn't use this as an opportunity to open-up this part of the river for more user engagement. They could've taken a page out of the RiverWalk design, by stepping this area down towards the River. Something like this would've been great.
