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Post by Alex on Feb 15, 2006 14:48:09 GMT -8
Too much, no doubt. Those proposed bridges at the north end of the Saanich inlet look like they'd be extremely long.
Does anybody know what the depth is there? That could pose extreme problems to construction of any piers or towers. It may have to be some sort of floating structure.
As for the more southern bridge, that would still be quite a long span for any type of design.
As for the ferry link, it seems like it would only work if the existing malahat was closed completely, making the ferry the only means of connection. Otherwise, people would inevitably take the existing route, since they always have, and its cheaper. THis would lead to a lack of use, and therefore lack of service, and we'd just have another Mill Bay - Brentwood Bay level of service. However, completely eliminating a land route would no doubt be strongly opposed, since it would force people to pay an extra fee to travel up the island.
No doubt, most of the new ideas would involve some sort of toll, as it seems to be the popular choice for new projects from our provincial government.
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Post by Alex on Feb 16, 2006 15:43:03 GMT -8
Well, as for your aunt not knowing anything about it, I would say thats to be expected, for two reasons. First, this whole project appears to be in the very early study stage at the moment. However, that's not really a comforting thought, because of reason 2: the Campbell government likes to throw projects together without really consulting anyone. They come to a final design, and then tell everyone that thats the way its going to be. RAV, Gateway, Golden ears bridge, are all good examples of this. However, being an active member of the community, your aunt is in a good position to put up a stink and force changes.
As for congestion on the Pat Bay, I would assume this plan would accompany some sort of expansion to the highway. Possibly an upgrade to a full freeway, with no lights. With that kind of traffic, its an idea candidate for such an upgrade, at least up until the traffic separates. That would also speed up travel times.
And you're right about the southern bridge, it would end up being rather high. I'm not sure how feasible that would be for most bridge designs. Even for a large suspension or cable stayed bridge, it would be rather high. I'm not sure if there's an upper limit on height for those kinds of bridges, as I'm not a Civil Engineer.
As for the original highway, I think upgrades there could be feasible. Especially when they're considering such massive bridges as an alternative. They will NOT be cheap to build. And given the success of the Sea to Sky, which seems to be in a more precarious position, it should not be unreasonable to expand the existing Malahat. I wonder why thats not really being discussed?
As for the rail link...I have to disagree with that being a viable option. This whole region simply wasn't designed with rail in mind. Everything is too spread out with too small population centres. I think it would suffer the same problems as I mentioned for a ferr link. People are unwilling to change...its human nature. Without closing down the malahat and making the train the only option, people would simply not use it. Then you get the catch 22, where if no one uses it, you can't offer enough service to make it a viable alternative. People aren't going to wait around for a single round trip per day. Aswell, you run into the issue that you can't bring your car with you on the train. This brings even MORE problems. First, no one will be willing to completely abandon travel by car to the rest of the island. It will never fly. Second, even if you managed to convince everyone, you'd then need to have the rail line connect with every community north of the Malahat. That would be hugely unaffordable, since such rails don't exist to places like Tofino. Also, it would be unaffordable to run a train all the way north to Port Hardy, and all the communities in between.
However, this leads me to an interesting idea. You could run a ferry service, AND a rail link to the major metropolitan areas. Then, people going to smaller communities have a car option, and people going to Nanaimo, etc, have a fast car-less option. This would still require the complete closure of the Malahat, to force people to the other two options. With a comparable fare structure, it could be a viable alternative that would effectively split the traffic.
Hmm...what do you think of that?
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