Misc. Transportation Projects

[VaultBoy]

Where did this come from? Never knew Twin Brooks had issues with ingress and egress?

That's interesting. 119 St is a planned interchange. And the original Twin Brooks plans had a 119 St bridge across Blackmud Creek to connect to 23 Ave: https://webdocs.edmonton.ca/infraplan/plans_in_effect/Twin_Brooks_NASP_Consolidation.pdf

"4. 119 Street - a 4 lane divided arterial roadway planned to be extended across the Blackmud Creek Ravine to the Outer Ring Road and beyond"

 

[Edmcowboy11]

This makes a lot of sense though considering that it would also connect to the LRT and park and ride easily.

 

[The_Cat]

Twin Brooks would also have another route out.

 

[thommyjo]

How many people live in twin brooks? Are we going to spend 300+ mil for an interchange and ravine bridge for this area?

Maybe the redundancy is needed, the whitemud to henday connect, then to ellerslie and the LRT tie in is great. But at what cost?

 

[northlands]

The LAST thing the Henday needs along that stretch is another interchange, there are already issues with congestion on the Henday along that stretch due to the number of on/off merges already.

 

[yeggator]

The LAST thing the Henday needs along that stretch is another interchange, there are already issues with congestion on the Henday along that stretch due to the number of on/off merges already.

As someone who commutes here daily, I wholeheartedly disagree. The congestion is because of how much traffic gets funnelled onto only 3 interchanges on the Henday for the whole Southwest. The Rabbit Hill Road logjam? That’s because there’s so much Chappelle-bound traffic trying to make a left at an underbuilt intersection with Ellerslie Road.

 

[yeggator]

How many people live in twin brooks? Are we going to spend 300+ mil for an interchange and ravine bridge for this area?

Maybe the redundancy is needed, the whitemud to henday connect, then to ellerslie and the LRT tie in is great. But at what cost?

It’s not just Twin Brooks that benefits. The entire Heritage Valley area gets another all-directional interchange and that also improves private vehicle and bus access to the new LRT station and Park n Ride.

 

[northlands]

As someone who commutes here daily, I wholeheartedly disagree. The congestion is because of how much traffic gets funnelled onto only 3 interchanges on the Henday for the whole Southwest. The Rabbit Hill Road logjam? That’s because there’s so much Chappelle-bound traffic trying to make a left at an underbuilt intersection with Ellerslie Road.

It may reduce access congestion for commuters to/from the SW, but it'll wholly increase congestion on the Henday itself. Their proposed alignment has the merge lanes far too close to 111th and it's going to be an absolute mess of drivers trying to merge on/off either interchange.

It sounds to me like a better solution may be improving the noted underbuilt intersection instead

 

[BASE]

Sounds like there are lots of options, maybe a bit of a collector system could be built out to deal with tightness between intersections, maybe you just do entry exit lanes as is done on to the south on heritage trail now (rather than build a new bridge across, or maybe you get some efficiency investing in upgrading rabbit hill road & 111 interchanges.

 

[Edmcowboy11]

When I think of it this will be a great addition to the area. I on occasion have to go to areas along Ellerslie but find that I have very few options when going there. This interchange will shorten my travel time on Ellerslie Road without a doubt.

 

[policyenthusiast]

Interesting things happening in Norway. A mix of water and propylene glycol are pumped between these orange tubes and geothermal vents, heating the roads & sidewalks enough to make snow clearing obsolete outside of extreme weather events. Pretty cool.

Geothermal energy in Canada​

Canada has vast geothermal energy resources that could be used as clean sources of power, relying primarily on binary cycle power plants to generate geothermal energy. The potential for geothermal development is distributed throughout Canada, but more data is required for much of Canada’s land. The highest temperature geothermal resources are located in British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Alberta. Further research and mapping are required to reduce exploration risk and support regulatory development.

 

[archited]

^ That's what I have been trying to get across... The energy expended in dealing with snow events in this manner is about half the energy expended for conventional snow removal with salt, sand, trucking, and plowing. It also requires closer attention to the roadway/sidewalk structure.

 

[policyenthusiast]

^ That's what I have been trying to get across... The energy expended in dealing with snow events in this manner is about half the energy expended for conventional snow removal with salt, sand, trucking, and plowing. It also requires closer attention to the roadway/sidewalk structure.

Lots of retrofits needed for drainage as well. Maybe brick walkways would be easier to repair?

 

[northlands]

I agree with Archited, on paper it makes a lot of operational + financial sense in certain locations.

Frankly it is surprising to me the U of A has never implemented it on their main campus. They already have the central heating plant they could connect to and they spend a fortune on snow removal and sanding/salting all the outdoor walking paths around campus.

 

[Airboy]

The Idea of snow melt on the streets and sidewalks goes back to the early 60s. Back then it was using waste heat from Rossdale.