Anthony Henday Drive

Originally Posted by technomad

the merge-athon on westbound yellowhead between henday and the river is going to be a very real problem though, 4th bridge lanes in both direction will be needed soon..

Not really that soon. Even the first planning study identified this is a problem, as did the latter 2. Based on their projections, the level of service for the N-W movement will remain acceptable because as long as the rest of YHT is not upgraded even beyond Victoria, the merge between AHD and the river will never be the weakest point.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

This morning I took the circumferential trip around the Henday, from Calgary Trail counterclockwise.

Going at a steady pace with the cruise control set to 110 kph, took 43 minutes total.

At first I never understood why they felt the need to rebuild the old 16X between Hwys 16 and 14 since it was already twinned, but I'm glad they did - what a vast difference. I noticed traffic lights for those turning from Henday north to Baseline west - about frigging time.

Traffic was light going NB through the new sections while most people trying out the new road seemed to be going clockwise. Only saw one speed trap, SB south of the new river crossing. The only section on the ring where I encountered heavier volumes was from Rabbit Hill to Gateway Blvd.

Until the Yellowhead is rightfully upgraded to a freeway standard, I really think the north Henday is a great alternative for pass-through traffic.

On a side note - I can't remember if I've noticed before, but man those Heartland transmission towers that run along the SE to NE Henday are massive! They easily the dwarf the old transmission towers.

[Airboy]

First cyclist have now completed a circumnavigation of the Henday. Clockwise. 84km in 2:34.00. They reported only on e encounter with a driver. Apparently the guy was trying to film them and drove off the road.

[itom 987]

There are some excellent views of the skyline to be seen from the new portion of AHD!

[240glt]

Drove it today to St Albert, under half hour from Gold Bar to the Citadel care centre vs. 45 minutes it took before. Fantastic. It should save us a bunch of time heading for BC next week.

Originally Posted by Hallsy's Toupee

At first I never understood why they felt the need to rebuild the old 16X between Hwys 16 and 14.

It wasn't even remotely close to being up to the current standard. For one, you couldn't fit any more lanes under the old bridges at SPF so that whole thing was getting nuked anyway. I don't know if you saw the section north and south of SPF, but there was no median. Pretty clear that the whole east side needed to be rebuilt.

[Kokkei Mizu]

Here's a time lapse video of the new section:

• Video Link

Thanks for posting that, I was hoping you'd gone clockwise as there's a signage error southbound right before Yellowhead, a screenshot of which I want to send to them.

[hilman]

Took it this morning, it was glorious. Was such an easy drive from the deep north side of town (entered the Henday on 66 street) and drove to work just off of 99 street and Whitemud. My usual route down 82/Jasper/Low Level/99 street takes about 25-30 minutes to work and about 45 minutes to get home. This morning it was around 22 minutes to get to work (Whitemud still 60 km/h due to construction) and only had 3 sets of lights on my 34 km journey (20 km on my normal route). I am really looking forward to seeing how much faster my commute home will be, I am guessing it will be around half the normal time it takes me going up 99th or using Capilano.

[dansk]

This investment brings the Edmonton Region together. Along with improvements to the Yellowhead, it would be nice to see the city invest improvement to the flow of goods to the heart of the city. We have the investment of LRT which will help, but there is a need for increased access for goods and services to the heart of our City for the region now.

[feepa]

Originally Posted by dansk

This investment brings the Edmonton Region together. Along with improvements to the Yellowhead, it would be nice to see the city invest improvement to the flow of goods to the heart of the city. We have the investment of LRT which will help, but there is a need for increased access for goods and services to the heart of our City for the region now.

The city should pay for 25% of the cost to bring the yellowhead to full freeway standards. The rest should be split between the Province and Federal government. It's a national highway from Prince Rupert/Vancouver to just west of Winnipeg.
It should be similar to the deerfoot, but with aid from the federal government as the roadway is of importance to at least the 4 western provinces.

[adam-machiavelli]

With a connected, high-quality, and direct freeway from one end of the City to the other, doesn't this actually undercut Edmonton's argument to upgrade the urban Yellowhead to a freeway standard?

[s211]

Originally Posted by adam-machiavelli

With a connected, high-quality, and direct freeway from one end of the City to the other, doesn't this actually undercut Edmonton's argument to upgrade the urban Yellowhead to a freeway standard?

Hell, no.

Edmonton may be an ok place to get "around", but not get through.

It's access to the central core from outlying regions is amongst the worst I've seen for a city of its size.

[Landlocked]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Drove it today to St Albert, under half hour from Gold Bar to the Citadel care centre vs. 45 minutes it took before. Fantastic. It should save us a bunch of time heading for BC next week.

I'm thrilled that your commute time has been cut down. A side benefit is that it's also likely a much safer route now; the less intersections you need to navigate the better.

[lubicon]

Congrats YEG. So jealous here in YYC. We've got another 5-6 years of construction and then we'll have a ring road that is 75% complete. We're light years behind in that regard. Can't wait to try out the new Henday next time I'm up to visit family north of the City.

Originally Posted by adam-machiavelli

With a connected, high-quality, and direct freeway from one end of the City to the other, doesn't this actually undercut Edmonton's argument to upgrade the urban Yellowhead to a freeway standard?

No, just like how Stoney Trail does not undercut Calgary's argument to significantly upgrade Crowchild Trail.

[hilman]

The drive home today was magnificent. My 45-50 min drive of lights, stress and bumper to bumper was a smooth and serene 24 minutes home.

CTV is doing some experiment this afternoon on taking Yellowhead across the city vs Henday, which nets about 5-10 minutes of savings and a whole let less irritation. In practical commuter usage, this is not a common trip... and there's much bigger than 10 minute savings to be had on St. Albert-Sherwood Park trips for example, or Southeast Edmonton to St. Albert, Clareview to South Edmonton, on and on.

We're inevitably going to see "Henday saves only 6 minutes over Yellowhead, was it worth $2B?!" on the news tonight but hilman's commute that is now 20+ minutes shorter, and that of many others who will save even more than that... those are the trips that demonstrate the real effectiveness.

[sdimedru]

Originally Posted by Acey

CTV is doing some experiment this afternoon on taking Yellowhead across the city vs Henday, which nets about 5-10 minutes of savings and a whole let less irritation. In practical commuter usage, this is not a common trip... and there's much bigger than 10 minute savings to be had on St. Albert-Sherwood Park trips for example, or Southeast Edmonton to St. Albert, Clareview to South Edmonton, on and on.

We're inevitably going to see "Henday saves only 6 minutes over Yellowhead, was it worth $2B?!" on the news tonight but hilman's commute that is now 20+ minutes shorter, and that of many others who will save even more than that... those are the trips that demonstrate the real effectiveness.

my commute to/from work might be a minute or two quicker now, but even if it was a minute or two longer I would much prefer to avoid all the 97st lights/traffic along with the yellowhead 89st and 66st lights.

some nice views of the city on those overpasses, and boy a skilled photographer would have had a great time with the sunrise and the fog over the river this morning

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Here's the CTV story
http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?cli...ylistPageNum=1

They'll be doing another test tomorrow during morning rush hr