Green Line LRT | ?m | ?s | Calgary Transit

Go Elevated or try for Underground?

  • Work with the province and go with the Elevated option

    Votes: 50 79.4%

  • Try another approach and go for Underground option

    Votes: 9 14.3%

  • Cancel it altogether

    Votes: 1 1.6%

  • Go with a BRT solution

    Votes: 3 4.8%
  • Total voters
    63
Red Star said:
Forgive my ignorance...I'm not well versed in the history of this project.

But what was the city and the province doing from 2015-2019?

There was an NDP majority in office, Nenshi was mayor and all three levels of government had committed to funding in 2015. Was four years not long enough to get the ball rolling and get shovels in the ground?
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Trying to catch the falling knife of having set a budget below the per km cost of the West LRT, for a much more complicated piece of infrastructure.
 
In reading more on the Green Line, you really have to go to every possible source to get the full picture... In this article there was an interesting quote from Chabot.


Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot noted a need to advance the project forward, adding that while the province has said it won't support a Green Line alignment that includes tunnelling, the city and province could explore other options aside from the elevated tracks.

"I'm hoping through this assessment of the downtown core that we can come up with a solution that all Calgarians, including downtown businesses, can live with," Chabot said.

Is Chabot saying maybe a small underpass (don't call it a tunnel) and/or (at least partial) surface line is STILL on the table? If we're talking everything but tunnelling, that is how I read it. They know they need to get from Grand Central to 7th Ave, I think how they get there is still up for study/debate.
 
Cool it Shakespeare. It's 2025.
darwink said:
It was ever thus. And the fiscal capacity argument is wrong. Calgary's fiscal capacity is set solely by Councillors. Calgary also has a boat load of money in reserves, in theory to pay for things like cost overruns.
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darwink said:
People are fixated on the 5%. The West LRT was fully approved with the same level of confidence. The city doth protest too much.

There is nothing to be learned by having people show up and complain.

This is not what they approved. If they are signing the funding agreements, the city cannot descope things later.

It is only tight if council thinks it provides value to the process by tinkering.
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darwink said:
Trying to catch the falling knife of having set a budget below the per km cost of the West LRT, for a much more complicated piece of infrastructure.
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CalgaryTiger said:
In reading more on the Green Line, you really have to go to every possible source to get the full picture... In this article there was an interesting quote from Chabot.


Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot noted a need to advance the project forward, adding that while the province has said it won't support a Green Line alignment that includes tunnelling, the city and province could explore other options aside from the elevated tracks.

"I'm hoping through this assessment of the downtown core that we can come up with a solution that all Calgarians, including downtown businesses, can live with," Chabot said.

Is Chabot saying maybe a small underpass (don't call it a tunnel) and/or (at least partial) surface line is STILL on the table? If we're talking everything but tunnelling, that is how I read it. They know they need to get from Grand Central to 7th Ave, I think how they get there is still up for study/debate.
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Could they not just do a cut and cover through down town? Vancouver is a doing it now on the UBC line and did it in the part on the Airport line. Seems to me to be cheaper alternative to a boring machine and an ugly elevated option.
 
Golfing guy said:
Could they not just do a cut and cover through down town?
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Stuff in the way includes the CPKC tracks, the red line tunnel under those tracks, road underpasses under those tracks (which would necessitate digging deeper), and the red/blue line tracks on 7 Ave. Combine all that with necessary grades, and I think you get a not so shallow tunnel.
 
Golfing guy said:
Could they not just do a cut and cover through down town? Vancouver is a doing it now on the UBC line and did it in the part on the Airport line. Seems to me to be cheaper alternative to a boring machine and an ugly elevated option.
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Yes (with a tunnel shield under the CPR), but it has the same problem, creating a big pit in awful soil. Might be a bit cheaper, but those same tower owners who hate elevated also wanted to minimize road closures.
 
You find a way to go under the tracks. They build tunnels under mountain’s/bodies of water in the rest of the world. Sure our engineers can solve this problem. Can start cut n cover around 8th ave and pop out at Eau Clair for the future bridge across Bow River. The engineering over the tracks isn’t easy either. There has to be a way.
 
darwink said:
Yes. They said it involved an extra billion dollars, and a 50% chance of an extra billion on top of that, compared to an elevated case.
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Who said it will? The province with their back of a napkin elevated plans? The city was in full swing with the tunnel through downtown. Not sure there any sure costs for elevated yet.
 
Golfing guy said:
Who said it will? The province with their back of a napkin elevated plans? The city was in full swing with the tunnel through downtown. Not sure there any sure costs for elevated yet.
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The city when they cut $1.3 billion bucks off the line to scale down the project to keep the tunnel.
 
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Golfing guy said:
Who said it will? The province with their back of a napkin elevated plans? The city was in full swing with the tunnel through downtown. Not sure there any sure costs for elevated yet.
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When was this? 2017? 2019? 2020? 2021? 2022? 2024? There was an announcement that construction was ready to "start soon" each of those years
 
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