Roads, Highways & Infrastructure

[CBBarnett]

Thanks for posting all this great local history! I really like the different approach these construction articles were written, giving random facts and component cost breakdowns of the larger project.

Also $4.1M for an underpass in 1979 is only $16M in today's dollars. Construction inflation is wild.

 

[lemongrab]

So much interesting stuff there. Weird fun fact from the first one: Alderman John MacGregor Husband served Ward 7 from '77 to '80 and made a lot of really prescient points in that article. Google AI tells me his "estranged wife" Elaine Pauline Husband won the seat for that ward in 1980! No idea if they ran against each other or not as I haven't been able to find election results from 1980

 

[lemongrab]

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Thanks for posting all this great local history! I really like the different approach these construction articles were written, giving random facts and component cost breakdowns of the larger project.

Also $4.1M for an underpass in 1979 is only $16M in today's dollars. Construction inflation is wild.

I had the exact same thought. Also interesting how more publicly they debated the merits of road expansions. It's easy to assume it was just an unquestioned YES to more lanes everywhere, but it actually seems like there might have been even more nuanced thought about it all than we have today.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Also interesting how more publicly they debated the merits of road expansions.

The first article about the 4th Ave Flyover was very interesting in that it debated widening Macleod as part of the LRT construction. The alderman you mention, Husband, made a good point that eliminating road bottlenecks as part of LRT construction makes the argument for LRT weaker.

I think of it in the context of ballooning transit costs because of added projects like road work. As we examine the next phases of the Green Line it is important to keep Alderman Husband's point in mind.