General Updates and News

[beyeas]

Not sure if this has been mentioned already...

The university is planning a new “north east campus project,” expanding their TESL building at the corner of Tower Road and Inglis Street.

SMU is considering three variations on the expansion, ranging from 23,500 to 42,000 square feet. Early estimates for the cost of the project run from $8 million to $16 million.

ALEX BOUTILIER
METRO HALIFAX
Published: August 04, 2011 12:25 a.m.
Last modified: August 04, 2011 12:26 a.m.

[halifaxboyns]

Highway 103 connector road chosen

A 147-year-old home will have to be moved to make way for a new connector road from St. Margarets Bay to Highway 103.

The Nova Scotia government announced the favoured route between exits 5 and 6 on Thursday.

Transportation Minister Bill Estabrooks said this option was in the best interests of the community.

"Developing this route will have the least impact on the environment, while improving existing road safety conditions and serving the most people from St. Margaret's Bay Road," he said in a statement.

Story here

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

Highway 103 connector road chosen

A 147-year-old home will have to be moved to make way for a new connector road from St. Margarets Bay to Highway 103.

The Nova Scotia government announced the favoured route between exits 5 and 6 on Thursday.

Transportation Minister Bill Estabrooks said this option was in the best interests of the community.

"Developing this route will have the least impact on the environment, while improving existing road safety conditions and serving the most people from St. Margaret's Bay Road," he said in a statement.

Story here

Thanks for posting the story link.

I often wonder if the Nova Scotia government is spending too much on rural roads at a time when the rural areas are losing population to the HRM. Since the HRM is about the only part of the provincial population that is growing shouldn't the majority of road construction/public transportation be spent in the HRM? But also, good connections between the HRM and the rest of Canada are required.

[q12]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

Thanks for posting the story link.

I often wonder if the Nova Scotia government is spending too much on rural roads at a time when the rural areas are losing population to the HRM. Since the HRM is about the only part of the provincial population that is growing shouldn't the majority of road construction/public transportation be spent in the HRM? But also, good connections between the HRM and the rest of Canada are required.

Fenwick this is in HRM, very close to growing Tantallon. They are twinning the highly congested and dangerous HWY 103 to Hubbards (HRM limits).

http://www.gov.ns.ca/tran/highways/h...inningplan.pdf

http://www.gov.ns.ca/tran/highways/hwy103.asp

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by q12

Fenwick this is in HRM, very close to growing Tantallon. They are twinning the highly congested and dangerous HWY 103 to Hubbards (HRM limits).

http://www.gov.ns.ca/tran/highways/h...inningplan.pdf

http://www.gov.ns.ca/tran/highways/hwy103.asp

Thanks for the information. I looked at a map but didn't realize that is was growing quickly. In that case, it is a good place to spend the money.

[planarchy]

Originally Posted by q12

Fenwick this is in HRM, very close to growing Tantallon. They are twinning the highly congested and dangerous HWY 103 to Hubbards (HRM limits).

Perhaps. They are also doing it to open up lands for more suburban development, no doubt at the request of the Shaw's et al.

[someone123]

It would be interesting to see who owns land in that area.

Theoretically I am not against the idea of improving the highway and adding another exit to make it more efficient but it would be really unfortunate if this became an excuse for another Kingswood or two even farther out.

[-Harlington-]

This is intresting considering the majoruty of residents dont want this

HRM deffinitly has more plans for this area .

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by -Harlington-

This is intresting considering the majoruty of residents dont want this

Don't believe everything the media tells you. One guy has a bee in his bonnet about it for some reason and the media has flocked to his negativity as usual. Funny how he somehow is more of an expert than all the other folks involved. Nobody has challenged his qualifications or reasoning. He's not much different than the Heritage Trust obstructionists.

[pblaauw]

I really don't like the idea of a commuter rail system for Halifax, because of the space the infrastructure would take up. But talk of the Cogswell Interchange being demolished has me wondering: would some sort of tunnel (cars or LRT) between downtown Halifax and the Armdale Roundabout be even remotely doable?

[sdm]

Originally Posted by pblaauw

I really don't like the idea of a commuter rail system for Halifax, because of the space the infrastructure would take up. But talk of the Cogswell Interchange being demolished has me wondering: would some sort of tunnel (cars or LRT) between downtown Halifax and the Armdale Roundabout be even remotely doable?

Probably not with all the rock and shale.

It would likely be cheaper to place everything above ground.

[someone123]

Even if the geology is perfect tunnels still cost a lot of money. Subway and underground car tunnel projects are often in the billions of dollars. I agree that an underground transit line or highway is probably not realistic for Halifax with current technology. It could probably be paid for but it's not worth having, say, one subway line instead of an entire light rail system.

What I could see is tunnels for key bottlenecks. For example, it would be possible to make a light rail line that goes in a median similar to what you find on Robie, then goes underground to avoid a bad intersection like what you see by Windsor/Lady Hammond/Bedford Hwy. I think it would be possible to build a really efficient transit system using that approach. Another big advantage is that these sorts of improvements can go in piecemeal -- so it becomes a bunch of little $30M projects instead of a gigantic $300M Harbour Solutions type mess.

Anybody know of an up-to-date table of costs per kilometer for a bunch of different transit modes? There's underground heavy rail, underground light rail, elevated, separate rail lines, mixed-traffic rails...

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by someone123

What I could see is tunnels for key bottlenecks. For example, it would be possible to make a light rail line that goes in a median similar to what you find on Robie, then goes underground to avoid a bad intersection like what you see by Windsor/Lady Hammond/Bedford Hwy.

My concern with building an LRT in downtown would be the narrow streets. LRT may have much tighter turning than say heavy rail, but they still need a lot of room. So they wouldn't be able to get around a corner like Spring Garden and Barrington for example, unless that was entirely for transit. Plus from a dead stop getting up that hill, even if it's moderate grade might be tricky.

For me; I had envissioned that for the downtown of Halifax an LRT would probably have to be underground because of the tight corners. But, you could save money in the long run if there were two lines running through downtown - they could use a common tunnel (much like what Calgary does with the 7th Avenue corridor - just that it would be underground). I also suspect you'd probably have no choice but to tunnel to get an LRT across the harbour - but since it might be just for LRT, the cost would probably be less than say the proposed tunnel for the 3rd crossing (where vehicles would've been included).

The only thing I caution about putting LRT at grade (in medians) is that it can create quite a nightmare of traffic. 36 St NE is unfortunately a mess, thanks in part to the LRT and during rush hour - ugh! I got stuck there for over an hour.

The other challenge I see for HRM and using medians is that there are so few streets that have them! Only portions of Robie street up to Cunard have them, Dunbrack, small part of Windsor, parts of Cogswell, Connaught, Alderney Drive. That's all I can think of - but you'd have a limited area. Quinpool is probably wide enough that you could take out the on street parking to put an LRT down it - but then there is the traffic issue, plus the businesses would scream murder for taking the parking.

Despite the cost, I suspect if you did an LRT from Mumford, you'd probably have no choice but to put it under Quinpool, SGR and through the DT, but then you might be able to run it surface or elevated elsewhere.

[someone123]

Elevated may be cheap enough to be worthwhile. There are normally complaints about noise and appearance (on Vancouver's West side, for example, which is like the South End, there's significant opposition to a potential new rail line) but the current diesel buses are not exactly great to begin with.

Tunnels could be used selectively to deal with issues like turning radius. For example, the rail could go on Hollis and then turn up directly to Spring Garden underground (I have no idea if this is actually feasible). However, I would guess that because of cost such a project would probably just pick different routes that would work better.

For medians the streets would have to be rebuilt. This isn't necessarily a bad thing since many streets are poorly set up to begin with. They could add things like reversing lanes at the same time as the rail.

[Antigonish]

If Halifax were to use LRT I think the elevated method like the Skytrain in Vancouver is the best option for the downtown portions of the line. I still like the idea of the rail-cut being part of the route though..

[halifaxboyns]

Personally - I like the idea of Hollis and Lower water streets for streetcars, versus an LRT. I'd rather see a tunneled LRT with strategic connections to a seperate streetcar service. Both would still be an LRT, but used in different ways. Although Portland designed their LRT systems in the downtown core to be shared and used by both, although it rarely happens. The streetcar has it's own streets and the LRT it's own - but they do cross paths.

While elevated has some visual character issues (noise and appearance) - what a lot of people forget about is the cost down the line. It may be relatively inexpensive (compared building tunnels) up front, but the cost of maintaining a expanse of elevated guideway over the long haul grows as time passes. From what I've read, it can get pretty pricey when the guideways reach about 40 to 50 years old or more.

No matter how you cut it, building a rapid transit system won't be cheap for HRM, but I've read that some new tunnel construction methods have really cut the cost down for slate/granite type rock tunnels.

I'm going to post in the transportation section a map of my thoughts on the tunnel issue - that's probably where this conversation should be.

[resetcbu1]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

Personally - I like the idea of Hollis and Lower water streets for streetcars, versus an LRT. I'd rather see a tunneled LRT with strategic connections to a seperate streetcar service. Both would still be an LRT, but used in different ways. Although Portland designed their LRT systems in the downtown core to be shared and used by both, although it rarely happens. The streetcar has it's own streets and the LRT it's own - but they do cross paths.

While elevated has some visual character issues (noise and appearance) - what a lot of people forget about is the cost down the line. It may be relatively inexpensive (compared building tunnels) up front, but the cost of maintaining a expanse of elevated guideway over the long haul grows as time passes. From what I've read, it can get pretty pricey when the guideways reach about 40 to 50 years old or more.

No matter how you cut it, building a rapid transit system won't be cheap for HRM, but I've read that some new tunnel construction methods have really cut the cost down for slate/granite type rock tunnels.

I'm going to post in the transportation section a map of my thoughts on the tunnel issue - that's probably where this conversation should be.

I personaly think that running LRT from the waterfront straight up South St, as a coridor like 7th ave (C-train) would be close enough to the SGR area and downtown to service it well, and even possibly expand the the main comercial core right to the university areas ,then head to robie and north from there where it could split off near the mackay bridge and head to bedford,dartmouth,clayton park etc...... they could have a major hub like a central station near the mackay bridge?

although I sugested it on South St, I hate 7th ave it is a blight on downtown here. I find it is drab and full of unsavory characters although they have done well cleaning up "crack Mac's\McDonalds" at 7th & 8th but I think it might work better along a street like South St . South is a little nicer to begin with and has a less grunge feel also a terminal could be part of a fenwick re-development...

[someone123]

There was an article in ANS tonight about plans to expand an HbD-style plan to the rest of the peninsula. The article says that there have been 12 projects approved under the Barrington Street Revitalization and that there are 14 more projects coming along under HbD.

Sounds good, although we haven't seen much from most of these. As far as I know the only big renovation happening right now on Barrington is the old Sam buildings..?

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by someone123

There was an article in ANS tonight about plans to expand an HbD-style plan to the rest of the peninsula. The article says that there have been 12 projects approved under the Barrington Street Revitalization and that there are 14 more projects coming along under HbD.

Sounds good, although we haven't seen much from most of these. As far as I know the only big renovation happening right now on Barrington is the old Sam buildings..?

I'm not surprised - the whole point of HbD was to make the development process more streamlined. So I'm not surprised we haven't heard much - they wouldn't be published! It would be nice to know what they are though...

I don't know if expanding HbD to the whole peninsula is a good idea. But depending how it's done it might work - I guess we'll have to see.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by someone123

There was an article in ANS tonight about plans to expand an HbD-style plan to the rest of the peninsula. The article says that there have been 12 projects approved under the Barrington Street Revitalization and that there are 14 more projects coming along under HbD.

Sounds good, although we haven't seen much from most of these. As far as I know the only big renovation happening right now on Barrington is the old Sam buildings..?

If these developments go forward then it would show the benefit of tax incentives to restore heritage properties on Barrington Street.

The new plan for Halifax and Dartmouth would be called the Center Plan. I just hope that this new plan will consider less restrictive height limits than the HRM_by_Design bylaws. Many proposals that have been recently accepted are grandfathered/exempted projects (Roy Building, Discovery Center Tower, and Nova Centre) that would have been rejected if considered under HRM_by_Design.

Outside of the Barrington Street District, HRM_by_Design hasn't generated much development (excluding grandfathered projects). It is quite easy to argue that these projects are the result of tax incentives and not the restrictions imposed by HRM_by_Design.