Calgary Bike Lanes and Bike Paths

[darwink]

The optimistic rail infrastructure unit cost for "New track construction adjacent to main track, cutting into earth slope" in the Bow Valley Mass Transit Study was $8.8 million (2017) per mile. Might be able to get a nice economy of scale for having ROW done for the pathway at the same time.

 

[zagox]

The optimistic rail infrastructure unit cost for "New track construction adjacent to main track, cutting into earth slope" in the Bow Valley Mass Transit Study was $8.8 million (2017) per mile. Might be able to get a nice economy of scale for having ROW done for the pathway at the same time.

The douglasdale retaining wall cost $28M for 300m ... equals $93 million per km or $150 million per mile. That $8.8 million seems light.

 

[darwink]

The douglasdale retaining wall cost $28M for 300m ... equals $93 million per km or $150 million per mile. That $8.8 million seems light.

That was a lot of work. 30 meter piles, moving heavy equipment over collapsing ground. At the very least the existing rail bed can support the weight of a train! Would just depend if the City took the oppotunity to work on the entire slope.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

If they did it right, we could probably be the only city in the world with both natural(ish) ice-climbing and surfing spots - and there'd be a few months where you could do both in the same day!

Absolutely. Man that would be dope.

 

[lemongrab]

Just build this:

https://goo.gl/maps/Xn7JEwYx7jMM6mha8

Cost $28M USD

 

[Mountain Man]

Now that would be dope!

 

[Mountain Man]

Here is what the ice on that pathway looks like in the winter. You can see it pushing the fence over slowly. It's probably at least 2' thick here

 

[lemongrab]

I think in spring it usually becomes more sloped towards the tracks, with a particularly tricky section in the middle.

Tbf it is clearly marked as closed, but perhaps it would be better if they were even more specific with an "Impassable Ice Flow" sign.

 

[Joborule]

Here is what the ice on that pathway looks like in the winter. You can see it pushing the fence over slowly. It's probably at least 2' thick here
View attachment 394264

Seeing that, it gives me context in how this person got hit by the train since it's narrower than I initially thought. Still shouldn't have happen and was definitely Darwinism, but revitalizes a concern with this section of the pathway system.

If the costs of improving the pathways to be an all year path are too much, then the planned pedestrian bridge over by Parkdale Blvd and 32 St NW could at least help in connecting the south part of the river with the north. The area west of Lawrey Gardens could be downgraded to a natural gravel path, and not a paved pathway anymore.

 

[Mountain Man]

That's from mid winter a couple years back, now it's mostly clear with only ice right where the water runs down the slope above. The pathway is closed in winter exactly for this reason, it's just super easy to go around the gate.

I think the sign says "seasonal closure due to ice" but I haven't looked at it in quite a while.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

That's a nightmare spot to ride through especially in my road-only bike; narrow, busy and the pavement is disintegrating in big chunks. Having seen the winter glacier, it's obvious why.

A raised boardwalk would be a better solution than some massive retaining wall type system; at $100/sf, 3000 feet long (the restricted pathway length) and 12 feet wide (basic multiuse path width), that's around $3.6M or so. Probably $4M once you add in a couple of bulb-outs for sitting areas and take into account the limited access to the site. A raised boardwalk would also do a better job of discouraging access both to the forest and the tracks. $4M is a big chunk compared to the bike infrastructure budget, although we're building both transit and freeway projects in the multi-$1000M ranges.

 

[Mountain Man]

The forest above is the Douglas Fir Trail, so we definitely don't want to discourage people going up there, that's one of the nicest bits of nature in the whole city. I think a massive retaining wall at the bottom to widen the CPR tracks, add a pathway and to stabilize the bank is the only answer. If you hike the DFT in the summer you can see where the whole slope is slowly moving. Adding this would fix the DFT as well as what's below. The biggest thing they need to contain is the runoff, as you can see a lot of water comes down that hill all through the year.

What will likely happen is the city will increase the fencing and maybe CPR police will increase their presence in the area as well. People will avoid it for a while, everyone will get complacent and in a few years it will be same as it is now.

 

[Disraeli]

Something definitely needs to be done fairly soon or that slope is going to continue to give out to the point where the trail wont be usable. Maybe they could work it into a plan for the Banff-Calgary line?

 

[lemongrab]

It's a lovely stretch of path, but it's actually not a particularly 'useful' or critical part of the pathway network...I'd love to see it fixed, but from a realistic resource allocation perspective there are a lot more critical areas to address.

For intance - the bottleneck on the north side of the river - particularly the ~500m west of Crowchild that are essentially a 3rd lane of Parkdale Blvd.

Easiest solution would be reducing to 1 driving lane at Kensington Rd until the Crowchild exit to give you a wheeling lane and a pedestrian path. I can't imagine it would be much of a vehicle bottleneck since Memorial is free-flow to 10 St. It would also turn the left side merges from Crowchild onto EB Memorial work a little better (not that there's much wrong with them, aside from people struggling with the concept).

 

[Joborule]

It's a lovely stretch of path, but it's actually not a particularly 'useful' or critical part of the pathway network...I'd love to see it fixed, but from a realistic resource allocation perspective there are a lot more critical areas to address.

For intance - the bottleneck on the north side of the river - particularly the ~500m west of Crowchild that are essentially a 3rd lane of Parkdale Blvd.

Easiest solution would be reducing to 1 driving lane at Kensington Rd until the Crowchild exit to give you a wheeling lane and a pedestrian path. I can't imagine it would be much of a vehicle bottleneck since Memorial is free-flow to 10 St. It would also turn the left side merges from Crowchild onto EB Memorial work a little better (not that there's much wrong with them, aside from people struggling with the concept).

Just even getting the street lights off of the pathway itself (move them to the median of the road) would help a lot in that section. It's crap the way it is right now.