[hunter12]

I'm not sure this is one of those "build it and they will come" projects. It will be great for those in evergreen and aspen ridge but the road leading to the bridge on the east side (mcormond) will have a speed limit of 50k and 60k. If you look at the concept plan for the Aspen Ridge subdivision there will be three sets of traffic lights plus parallel parking on a portion of Mcormond. Talk about stupid planning (or just another example of poor planning by the city). I estimate that between highway 5 and the north bridge there will ultimately be 10 to 12 sets of lights from willowgrove through evergreen, aspen ridge and the next planned subdivisions north of silverspring. Plus the on street parking in Aspen Ridge. I'm only speaking for myself, but I live in Arbor Creek and I likely won't use the bridge more than a couple times a year.

Originally Posted by gowest

Just found this thread. I'm not an engineer or any type of designer but I am very familiar with traffic related types, flows and congestion.
The North commuter bridge. Just watched the cities video. There's an old saying,, build it and they will come. With this bridge that will definitely be true and it will save thousands of people time and frustration. At the same time, when you build into an industrial area, they will come also includes trucks. In a truck drivers mind you have a bridge out of the industrial area, that's the way to go. Maybe they are planning to have a gate keeper there to tell trucks they can't use that bridge, go to Circle Drive until the North Bridge is built. The biggest vehicle on the video is a bus. Great idea but problems can already be seen.
Neault Road.
Building this up to a higher standard will be great due to the increased developement in the western end of the city. As they plan this they should plan a bypass route for oversized loads. If you haven't had the chance to see a RTM house coming one way and a huge air seeder coming the other you have missed an interesting show. There are over 200 RTM homes moved down that road each year. Add to that the huge number of farm equipment and items manufactured in the north industrial and Corman industrial areas. Most people don't realize that any oversized loads going anywhere on the east side of the river must go south to Outlook to cross.
Circle Drive South Bridge.
For those of us that use this daily, all I can say is Wow. It has changed so much for people getting back and forth.
Having said that, the planning and construction are something else. The level grade intersections have been mentioned in other posts. The fact the the planners who know everything didn't listen to the people of Montgomery when they said the trucks would use 11th Street to Highway 7 rather than the conjestion on 22nd. Funny thing how they knew what would happen.
We all know what happens to the Idywyld underpass at Circle North during a heavy rain. Guess what, the 11th street underpass on Circle south has a similar problem.
A few years ago, the City had a plan for a west ring road. This would come around from the north, North bridge and join 22nd (Highway14) by the old Smithville Cemetary a couple of miles west of Blaimore. The problem being it can' t go south because of the Swales and the Cory mine south of the CN tracks.
Regina Boys plan shows how the bridge connection could join Highway 7 near the Pike Lake cut-off. That's about the only way they can do it because of the rail yards and other developments. It appears to connect to Neault Road at 22nd. For those who don't know Neault Road, the Dalmany Road was renamed after the passing of Counciller Maurice Neault. "Mo" was a tireless fighter for improving this area. Things were coming great until his passing then it stopped. Example is the pile of dirt for the never built overpass behind Walmart.
Long term planning is important, but changing in into several different short term plans doesn't work. What ever solution they come up with now to improve the west end traffic problems is going to be extremely expensive.