trtcttc
Senior Member
With the Green Line board disbanded and I think the CEO of the project left, whose running this thing? Is everything going to be voted on by council?
Green Line LRT | ?m | ?s | Calgary Transit
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
whatchyyc
Active Member
Green Line becomes City of Calgary business unit under Infrastructure Services - LiveWire Calgary
The City of Calgary has created a formal department to execute the $6.25 billion Green Line project, now residing under the Infrastructure Services portfolio. The City confirmed the unit, dubbed Green Line LRT Southeast Project, on Thursday, after a memo was sent to appropriate city staff...
livewirecalgary.com
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
Green Line's elevated downtown alignment still a sore spot for Calgary councillors - LiveWire Calgary
The current Green Line functional plan for an elevated route through downtown Calgary will include a connection to an Eau Claire station, city officials said Monday. Still, questions persist around whether other downtown options should still be considered before the city moves ahead with any...
livewirecalgary.com
Looks like the train will go to Eau Claire: "The current Green Line functional plan for an elevated route through downtown Calgary will include a connection to an Eau Claire station, city officials said Monday."
There are still a few councillors and the mayor holding our hope for a different downtown alignment. This thing has been studied to death.
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Sort of related - looks like Gondek is running for mayor again, after all.
Albertasaurus
Active Member
I am wondering, would having the station at Eau Claire above ground rather than transitioning from a tunnel to a bridge so abruptly reduce the cost of the bridge structure across the river? I assume it would make for a less challenging structure from an engineering perspective?
I would love if they would run that thing into the side of the hill, Edmonton LRT style, and emerge just north of 20 Ave N. One can dream.
darwink
Senior Member
If elevated is off the table, its optimal imo. Becomes a bit of an optimization problem, trying to keep the distance down between the tunnel portal and the southern most edge of the station box, so that an emergency staircase and smoke extraction isn't needed in between. At 16th, station designs optimization becomes about underground cost versus land purchases required--too strong of a mandate to not purchase more land, and underground expensive choices need to be made.
From the article it appears a couple of councilors (Wong and Carlo-Carras) still want to look at other routes downtown, and Gondek still feels like the underground is the best option and feels confident it will be chosen as the downtown option. It's possible none of those three will be around after the election.
Personally I'm still good with the elevated down 2nd, and would be very happy to see the line go straight into the hill and remain underground until after 16th.
Personally I'm still good with the elevated down 2nd, and would be very happy to see the line go straight into the hill and remain underground until after 16th.
Albertasaurus
Active Member
Running the line at grade on Centre St to 16th would be devastating for the businesses along that stretch.
Also I don't like the idea of the train crossing 16th at grade. I'm not concerned about the vehicle's inconvenience, but more on the operational and safety side and inconvenience and safety for the train. I think we spend the money and do it properly, and ensure the train has a smooth path at least past 16th.
outoftheice
Active Member
The Crescent Heights Village BIA has been campaigning for a change to Centre St south of 16th Ave for years. Whether it comes from surface running Green Line, dedicated bus lanes or just a simple road diet, the businesses of that area appear to feel strongly that the current car sewer status quo with the lane reversals is actually the worst possible case for businesses along that stretch.
NWUrbanism
New Member
Exactly. Running the train at grade would likely make the area much more pedestrian friendly by significantly reducing traffic and shortening crossing distances, as long as they design it to have pedestrian crossings at every avenue. The way it is right now, if you want to go to two businesses right across the street from each other you may have to walk 2 or 3 blocks north or south to find a controlled intersection to safely cross at!
Albertasaurus
Active Member
I'm more concerned about the extremely disruptive and lengthy construction process and what effect it would have - It'd be Marda Loop on steroids. Although I suppose building a tunnel would entail disruption as well (especially if it's cut-and-cover)
CBBarnett
Senior Member
It would be hard to do worse than the current streetscape, Centre Street south of 16th Avenue is one of Calgary's best stretches of road as an example of the totally cavalier and uncoordinated lane width decisions that go on silently over the years, effective acting like a decades long process of erosion on the curb, slowly making everything worse for every road user.
That stretch of Centre has everything:
- 5m wide outside lanes, but also hilariously inconsistent and randomly changing in width block-by-block.
- Bus bays that force endless merging in-and-out of traffic flow by countless busses.
- Too many bus stops overall too.
- Generally poor condition everything due to 15 years of uncertainty due to on-and-off-again Green Line alignments freezing the area from much investment to clean some of this stuff up.
Regardless of an eventual surface or tunnel Green Line alignment, the thing that really needs to clean up is the largely invisible processes and decision frameworks that created the current mess or history will repeat itself and make everything wider, sloppier and less pedestrian-friendly than it needs to be.
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
This could be said for any of the city's stroads. None of which are actually targeted for "Main Street" work. Our actual Main Streets are almost all too far gone for any structurally planned and effective fix. When I say this I think of 16th Ave, Centre St N, 4th Ave, 5th Ave, 6th Ave, 9th Ave, 11th Ave, 12th Ave, Macleod Trail, Elbow Drive.