Edmonton METS Plan (1969 Historical Freeway Plan)

[ION]

And I assure you, if you ever talk to a new yorker urbanist, he'll have a shiver sent down his spine just at the mention of this name
He should have his name taught right next to Hitler and Le Corbusier for their crimes against humanity!

What you don't like a VW? ;-) Especially one of the de-tuned diesel variety? I thought #RollingCoal was an Albertan tradition! At least from what I've seen/smelled/coughed lately... I do have promise for their new vision though. At least they seem to be following through on their vision for an all electric tomorrow... ish. Still waiting on those first ID4's to ship to Canada, never mind the smaller and more affordable 3 which seems not to be headed our way anytime soon.

As for Le Corbusier, I love his furniture. I'll leave it at that... Towers in the park? Not so much... Much like flat taxes, great in theory, the reality is a nightmare... Give me a Vancouver compromise any day... (Street wall of Townhouses punctuated by point towers)

 

[ION]

Finally got into my laptop from uni, which means i can share some photos i took from the METS report in Rutherford Library. I'll share what i have here for posterity. i believe the copy in Rutherford that i read was an early concept, because it did not get into costing or any real engineering beyond traffic volumes. It did speak at length about the conceptual basis for the program, the idea of downtown being a hub for all of North-Central Alberta, not just of Edmonton itself. The document i found was written by the Chicago-base consultants who designed the plan initially. The intro-preamble sections talked about how important it was to maintain access to downtown for rural residents, thus justifying building capacity for cars. it also had a disdain for public transit, telling the city 'buses will be able to use the freeways to move people around if the city so chooses' when local leaders asked how the system would integrate into Edmonton's existing public transit (which was concurrently developing it's 102 Ave subway plan, to become the Jasper Ave LRT). Funding was also a big question mark, (the report i read was fairly early i believe) but the response from the consultants was 'in the US, 90% of freeway construction is funded federally, with the rest coming from the state. We expect the Canadian government to do something similar', basically leaving all the intensive lobbying required to get funding up to civic leaders. I didn't take good enough notes of it all, so don't have enough actual quotes, but i remember that part of the report being a trip. just listening to these americans tell Edmonton that cars are the future and the US is doing it so we should too, it was wild.
Anyways, here's some pictures of the freeway routes proposed at the time:
(these would be the 'legs' coming off the central blue ring in the above posts)
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I can practically smell the benzene... and asthma from here! This is why I am at least glad Edmonton doesn't now have to unbuild this gargantuan nightmare of what would no doubt by now be a crumbling mess of broken concrete and rusted steel beams. The alignments for Tesla tunnels following these routes deep under the city would be kinda cool though. Although I truly have my doubts about the economics of a lot of what that dude is peddling these days... Anyone who hates rapid transit and unions as much as that man has some real character defects if you ask me...

 

[CplKlinger]

Margaret Chappelle: The artist who saved the MacKinnon Ravine

Margaret Chappelle was an unlikely activist: the only child of wealthy parents, and wife to a successful young doctor, she …

citymuseumedmonton.ca

 

[The_Cat]

I wonder if some of the old METS road allowances could serve as multi-use paths for bikes. For example, MacKinnon Ravine could connect with Stony Plain Road, the Groat Bridge and River Valley Road.

 

[mcr]

I wonder if some of the old METS road allowances could serve as multi-use paths for bikes. For example, MacKinnon Ravine could connect with Stony Plain Road, the Groat Bridge and River Valley Road.

Unless I am misunderstanding your post, this is already the case. MacKinnon Ravine has a MUP that connects from south of Stony Plain Rd (on Summit Dr, and there there is a bridge across to Stony Plain Rd), runs through the ravine all the way down and connects to River Valley Road and the Groat Rd bridge / Victoria Park Rd.

 

[Platinum107]

Margaret Chappelle: The artist who saved the MacKinnon Ravine

Margaret Chappelle was an unlikely activist: the only child of wealthy parents, and wife to a successful young doctor, she …

citymuseumedmonton.ca

This is one of the best articles posted to this forum. It's so important that we learn about the activists who came before us in the radical fight for a sustainable city and their amazing stories. Long live Margaret!!

“No amount of money is large enough to buy back any ravine… What are we building, a city to accommodate more and faster machines? Or to accommodate more and better people? Let us take the firm stand—our parklands are inviolate.” -Margaret Chappelle.

Love this quote. Does anyone know how to add the footer to their posts? I want to put that in there haha

 

[mcr]

This is one of the best articles posted to this forum. It's so important that we learn about the activists who came before us in the radical fight for a sustainable city and their amazing stories. Long live Margaret!!

“No amount of money is large enough to buy back any ravine… What are we building, a city to accommodate more and faster machines? Or to accommodate more and better people? Let us take the firm stand—our parklands are inviolate.” -Margaret Chappelle.

Love this quote. Does anyone know how to add the footer to their posts? I want to put that in there haha

In your Account Settings page there's a section called "Signature" where you can add it!

 

[IanO]

City Under Pressure

A case study of municipal government and the influence of citizens acting as a group. The case study is that of Edmonton, but the problems shown are those …

www.nfb.ca

 

[MarvinBanana]

Huh? Ohh I get it, Moses-esque in the vein of the 7 Plagues of Egypt, with the 8th being this highway network! Yeeeah let's just say I'm quite happy with not having to cross over a couple of whitemud-style freeways whenever I walk or bike downtown or in the river valley, thank you very much.

See the definitive work on Robert Moses - ’The Power Broker’ by Robert A. Caro - Highly recommended. It won the Pulitzer Prize.

 

[BASE]

Wasn't sure where to post this but had some thoughts on our road network I was curious about. Is there somewhere that has a future vision for Edmonton roadway expansion/contraction? Thinking specifically freeways is there any work on the horizon in that regard beyond the current Yellowhead project and future widening of the Henday (i.e. from 4 to 6 lanes).

I bring this up full well knowing there is a focus on transit development, walkability, and bikeability in much of the cities current planning objectives. For this purpose I am just curious of discussion around whether any other freeway projects would make sense? Perhaps the fact Terwillegar was not converted to a freeway speaks to the idea we aren't likely to see much in this regard in the decades to come.

2 areas I wondered about were continuing Whitemud westwards as things have grown in that direction. The other is a conversion of 91st street from say Whitemud heading South making a direct connection to Calg Trail/Gateway Blvd. Looking at 91st it looks like it was built to be converted at some point.

Any thoughts on these or other areas that would make sense as the city grows and their likelihood?

Thanks,

 

[BrettB]

There was the Transportation Master Plan that laid out the vision of an inner ring road (75th, Yellowhead, 170th, and Whitemud) and an outer ring road that became AHD. That was from the late 80s.

 

[yeggator]

Wasn't sure where to post this but had some thoughts on our road network I was curious about. Is there somewhere that has a future vision for Edmonton roadway expansion/contraction? Thinking specifically freeways is there any work on the horizon in that regard beyond the current Yellowhead project and future widening of the Henday (i.e. from 4 to 6 lanes).

I bring this up full well knowing there is a focus on transit development, walkability, and bikeability in much of the cities current planning objectives. For this purpose I am just curious of discussion around whether any other freeway projects would make sense? Perhaps the fact Terwillegar was not converted to a freeway speaks to the idea we aren't likely to see much in this regard in the decades to come.

2 areas I wondered about were continuing Whitemud westwards as things have grown in that direction. The other is a conversion of 91st street from say Whitemud heading South making a direct connection to Calg Trail/Gateway Blvd. Looking at 91st it looks like it was built to be converted at some point.

Any thoughts on these or other areas that would make sense as the city grows and their likelihood?

Thanks,

Terwillegar wasn't converted to a freeway because they just couldn't find the funding for that (the braided ramps and a reorganized interchange at Whitemud Drive, plus the giant cloverstack at the Henday, all lead to the cost ballooning), plus, it would be limited in utility until it was extended to the airport. However, the Edmonton Metro Region Board's growth plan does still outline this road being a freeway in the far future. Hopefully, the province steps in on that project as part of a realigned Highway 2/2a.

Whitemud Drive being free-flow to just past 231 Street is probably still in the cards. I would love for 91st Street to be converted but it's never been mentioned in planning discussions, although I think it would make things much faster between the Henday and Whitemud during peak hours.

Turning Manning Drive into a freeway up to 137th Ave still makes sense in my mind, including building an interchange at Highway 37 where it's currently at grade and slows down to 70 km/h on the bridge into Fort Sask.

Ray Gibbon Drive by St. Albert and Highway 21 on the edge of Sherwood Park up to Fort Sask should inevitably be grade-separated too. Maybe Highway 60.

 

[Foolworm]

https://www.edmonton.ca/sites/default/files/public-files/assets/PDF/City_Plan_Maps.pdf (see page 11).

No future freeways (the full City Plan mentions 170 St SW, but that's beyond the 2 million horizon within the Plan's scope).

 

[ChazYEG]

There was the Transportation Master Plan that laid out the vision of an inner ring road (75th, Yellowhead, 170th, and Whitemud) and an outer ring road that became AHD. That was from the late 80s.

This would probably still be doable and, frankly, I don't think I would oppose it. If anything, it has the potential to improve the conditions for more transit and active transportation projects inside of the "inner ring road", as it would eliminate a lot of the cross-town traffic going through central areas, offload a lot of the traffic from some roads that could benefit from either a road diet or becoming transit/biking corridors.

 

[yeggator]

This would probably still be doable and, frankly, I don't think I would oppose it. If anything, it has the potential to improve the conditions for more transit and active transportation projects inside of the "inner ring road", as it would eliminate a lot of the cross-town traffic going through central areas, offload a lot of the traffic from some roads that could benefit from either a road diet or becoming transit/biking corridors.

I can’t see 170 or 75 Street becoming freeways. 170 Street is too close to the Henday to make converting it to a freeway worthwhile, while 75 Street from the Capilano Bridge to Argyll Road runs right of front of houses on both sides, which would all have to be torn down to convert it to a freeway. The community would never allow this.