Granville Street Bridge - Granville Connector Project | U/C

[jollyburger]

Just going to Google Maps but traffic was backed up all the way back to the south side of the bridge today and a bit backed up on the Burrard Street bridge. Not sure if it was related to a protest march.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Just going to Google Maps but traffic was backed up all the way back to the south side of the bridge today and a bit backed up on the Burrard Street bridge. Not sure if it was related to a protest march.

Canucks game.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Canucks game.

I think it was in the afternoon when I looked. It's pretty similar right now (2:37PM) but barely any traffic on Burrard today. Dunsmuir was backed up on the viaducts all the way back to Main Street as well so maybe something is happening downtown.

[Jimbo604]

What it is is a little experiment about what happens when you go down to four lanes on Granville bridge.

Also not working on weekend so not a "super high priority" project, it seems.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Jimbo604

What it is is a little experiment about what happens when you go down to four lanes on Granville bridge.

Also not working on weekend so not a "super high priority" project, it seems.

Or at least when you go down to only two lanes to get off the bridge. The south end doesn't seem to have the congestion problem

You're right about not working. I was surprised to see that all equipment etc has been cleared off the bridge deck itself. Even more troubling, I've seen at least two cars pull u-turns mid-span now that the dividers are gone. One due to the backup and one was likely an Uber chasing a fare. So dangerous, as some people really fly over the bridge deck and the large hump in the middle restricts visibility when they do.

WRT to the busses getting stuck in the traffic back-up, why not just make the inner lane bus only and let them cut in right before the Seymour off-ramp? Cars could be restricted to the two outer lanes.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Or at least when you go down to only two lanes to get off the bridge. The south end doesn't seem to have the congestion problem

I think there aren't any backlogs southbound because Howe Street gets backed up so much.

Give it a month and see if they "fix" anything..

[jollyburger]

Reddit has an overhead shot which gives a better view on the progress

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/c...dge_right_now/

[Zepfancouver]

There is more work than we thought, another 2 weeks.

This morning








https://makeagif.com/i/JFxhM3

[Jimbo604]

Originally Posted by Zepfancouver

There is more work than we thought, another 2 weeks.

Src: me

From yesterday. There was the holiday but two regular works days since Zep's pics posted on Mar 28, 2024, 3:00 PM. Unfortunately no discernable progress.

[Jimbo604]

src: me and Zep

An exciting animated comparison.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Fall 2024, they said? How likely is it that they meet that deadline?

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Fall 2024, they said? How likely is it that they meet that deadline?

They'll probably just stack styrofoam blocks to bring the grade back up to bridge level.

[trofirhen]

The increased bicycling and pedestrian access this bridge reworking will bring is just great, and I will not debate or argue any of the design aspects.

But I wonder: Will this mean more auto bottlenecks? As such, will transit, present and future, take up the slack in #pax or will it mean losing lane space that will be needed - and absent - anyway?

I am not supposing one way or the other, but if anybody has the mathematical answer, (or any other) please inform me. Thank you.

[idunno]

Bridge vehicle counters have long shown that the bridge itself was overcapacity and would always be overcapacity due to the lack of connecting highway network at either end.

Removal of two lanes isn't expected to make much (or any) impact on overall travel times from South Granville to downtown. Southbound, I could imagine some additional delays due to the new on-bridge signals, but even then, I'm not sure it would make much of a difference considering Granville and Fir/Broadway get congested in the PM peak.

[s211]

Originally Posted by idunno

Bridge vehicle counters have long shown that the bridge itself was overcapacity and would always be overcapacity due to the lack of connecting highway network at either end.

Granville, Seymour/Howe, and Georgia are labelled as Highway 99 on all maps I've seen. There's a bunch of through-town tourists that rely on GPS NAV and those systems seem to funnel people to highways over side roads.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by s211

Granville, Seymour/Howe, and Georgia are labelled as Highway 99 on all maps I've seen. There's a bunch of through-town tourists that rely on GPS NAV and those systems seem to funnel people to highways over side roads.

Yes, if you ask Google Maps how to get to Whistler from the airport, they suggest Granville Street, then Highway 99 over Granville Bridge, up Seymour Street, along West Georgia and over the Lion's Gate Bridge to the north shore.

But 'Highway 99' within the City of Vancouver isn't a freeway, which is what the Granville Street Bridge was designed to be part of. That's why it had 8 lanes, and that's why it won't make a difference to normal traffic flow if it is reduced to 6 (other than having to wait at new traffic signals). The route through Stanley Park and over the Lion's Gate Bridge is more constrained than the route over Granville Bridge, even after the reconstruction is complete and the lane count is less for motor vehicles.

[officedweller]

That's the norm - highways become main streets in cities/towns/villages that don't have freeway systems.
Take Hwy 3 entering Keremeos, for example, and then taking a left turn to Hwy 3A to Penticton.
That's like taking Seymour and turning left onto Georgia to go to Whistler.

[jollyburger]

I just hope they keep the widths similar to the current configuration even with less lanes versus what happened with Burrard Street bridge where a truck/bus can barely stick in their lane.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I just hope they keep the widths similar to the current configuration even with less lanes versus what happened with Burrard Street bridge where a truck/bus can barely stick in their lane.

The wide lanes on the Granville Bridge are at least partially to blame for the extreme speeding. It's not uncommon to see vehicles travelling at 80+ km/hr, which makes using the sidewalks and crosswalks on the bridge a hair-raising experience.

[idunno]

Southbound lanes will be narrowed IIRC. Not sure about the northbound lanes.