Why is the Calf Robe bridge still such a disaster?

[revelations]

Could someone tell me why the repaired calf robe bridge has such an uneven road surface? I've never seen a recently finished road surface on a major roadway in such bad condition.

:dunno:

[schocker]

Originally posted by revelations
Could someone tell me why the repaired calf robe bridge has such an uneven road surface? I've never seen a recently finished road surface on a major roadway in such bad condition.

:dunno:
Is it because it is concrete?

[narou]

Doesn't look finished too me. Honestly it was better before they started doing work on it.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by schocker

Is it because it is concrete?

I don't really think so. Lots of US cities have concrete highways, and they're freaking beautiful to drive on (not as good as properly done asphalt, but still nice).

[schocker]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


I don't really think so. Lots of US cities have concrete highways, and they're freaking beautiful to drive on (not as good as properly done asphalt, but still nice).
Oh you have never been to houston then. It is pretty much all concrete and is like thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk over and over but you get used to it.:rofl:

[revelations]

^ Yeah I've driven thousands of MILES on concrete I highways in the states.... they are smooth roads with the exception of the seams.



I wonder if this is partially why motorists tend to hit the brakes and slow to 80kph on the bridge - on a clear day with no traffic - because they freak out at the corner and then the unsmooth road.

[MK2MK4Jetta]

Originally posted by revelations
^ Yeah I've driven thousands of MILES on concrete I highways in the states.... they are smooth roads with the exception of the seams.



I wonder if this is partially why motorists tend to hit the brakes and slow to 80kph on the bridge - on a clear day with no traffic - because they freak out at the corner and then the unsmooth road.

Most states that have concrete dont get frost heaves.

[bart]

hitler used to build amazing concrete autobahns, there aren't many left but i've driven on them before they were :thumbsup:

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by MK2MK4Jetta


Most states that have concrete dont get frost heaves.

The calf-robe doesn't get many frost heaves either, lol. Seriously though, it wasn't good after they were finished in the fall, with no sub-zero temps.

[FixedGear]

I don't know, but I've noticed the same shoddy road construction all over Calgary (with the exception of Stoney, which seems to be done very well). I remember when they finished Glenmore between about Centre and Crowchild... you could drive along the thing and it was all bumpy and uneven like some guys had built it using shovels and non-motorized tampers. and this is one of the main thoroughfare freeways in the city. :rofl:

It seems that the city has really poor oversight of the road contractors, and lets them get away with half-assed shit work (which many contractors try to get away with if you aren't keeping on them).

[revelations]

Does anyone have some historical perspective on the CR bridge?

- why was it built with such a sharp S curve?
- why isnt the surface grooved like the 4th ave flyover into downtown?
- who was the winning civil engineer that conceived the OLD WB Peigan Tr to SB deer foot "onramp" where you had 2 seconds to merge.

[syritis]

It's a city contract. the builder could use an open bottom port-o-potty as a paving machine and the city would still pay top dollar.

same with stoney trail. Calgary's newest road and it's spent more time being under construction to put patches on top of patches than it has spent open. (yes, i'm aware its technically an alberta highway)

I'll still never understand why the city allows contractors to put 3-4 employees on one job for 4 months. instead of putting 10-12 workers on one job for a couple weeks THEN moving onto the next job.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by revelations
Does anyone have some historical perspective on the CR bridge?

- why was it built with such a sharp S curve?


My guess is because north and south of the calf robe deerfoot trail runs roughly parallel to the bow. The turn is sharp because you want bridges to be as short as possible so you need to get perpendicular to the river to minimize the distance. The only way of doing this with a less tight corner would be to move the north end east and the south end west to increase the radius of the turn.

I know nothing about deerfoots history but my guess was when it was built they didn't build it to accommodate a 100kph speed limit and/or historical land issues prevented them from creating larger radius turns.

[jibber]

I'm pretty sure Deerfoot is taken care of by the province, not the city...

They did shave one section of the new surface ( NB far right lane and 1/2 the middle lane on the northern [2nd] bridge) and it's not bad...

I'm also pretty sure it's impossible to get frost heaves on a bridge deck because there's air under the deck and not frozen earth.

[Kijho]

The bridge is complete shit.
Always has been, and I lost hope last year that it would ever get better.
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[black13]

Seriously agree. What a piece of shit road. I thought maybe after winter it would even out a bit but with the warm winter, don't think it helped.

It's a sharp turn and its bumpy.

[EG6boi]

Originally posted by Kijho
The bridge is complete shit.
Always has been, and I lost hope last year that it would ever get better.
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:


Originally posted by black13
Seriously agree. What a piece of shit road. I thought maybe after winter it would even out a bit but with the warm winter, don't think it helped.

It's a sharp turn and its bumpy.

Yeah, it's complete garbage. Even with the whole construction during last year, I thought there would be improvements but it's bumpy as hell. I feel sorry for anybody with a slammed ride. :facepalm:

[Aleks]

Deerfoot trail isn't built to handle rush hour traffic today. Hopefully the ring road helps in that regard once that project is complete.

Way too many spots on deerfoot where 3 lanes go into 2 and on/off merge lanes in same spot that aren't very long + absolutely terrible (scared) drivers who HAVE to merge right at the beggining of the lane = traffic jams.

I've heard Calf Robe is in Civic Eng textbooks as an example of how NOT to build a bridge. :rofl:

[chowd3r]

Originally posted by revelations
- who was the winning civil engineer that conceived the OLD WB Peigan Tr to SB deer foot "onramp" where you had 2 seconds to merge. [/B]

It was actually a yield, which made things even more interesting. :banghead:

[alien]

Originally posted by Aleks

I've heard Calf Robe is in Civic Eng textbooks as an example of how NOT to build a bridge. :rofl:

For the next edition they need to add the northbound crowchild trail bridge over the bow.

[clem24]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


I don't really think so. Lots of US cities have concrete highways, and they're freaking beautiful to drive on (not as good as properly done asphalt, but still nice).

Really?? Seattle was an absolute NIGHTMARE in my C63. I was so glad to be back in Calgary. This one residential street equivalent to say 20th Ave NW.. Holy hell I was doing only 30 MPH and I think I've knocked a few teeth loose. Not only that but the sections of freeway were loud as hell too. I90 though Spokane WAS one of the worst freeways I've ever driven (super bumpy and noisy) but thankfully they paved a real (asphalt) road now and it's much better.

[Tik-Tok]

The ones I frequent in Florida are decent, 10x better than the concrete on the CalfRobe.

[BigShow]

So the engineer behind this bridge went on to be the lead engineer at Spy Hill landfill. Among many other shortcomings the landfill caught fire and he was abruptly fired. :banghead:

[revelations]

Originally posted by chowd3r
It was actually a yield, which made things even more interesting. :banghead:

Yeah, basically while you were driving on the DF overpass before the "yield" you had to look up the DF SB right lane to see if there was a hope of getting in. No way you could safely plan this with the distance remaining once you were in the end of the lane.


Originally posted by BigShow
So the engineer behind this bridge went on to be the lead engineer at Spy Hill landfill. Among many other shortcomings the landfill caught fire and he was abruptly fired. :banghead:

Good inside info
:thumbsup:

[1barA4]

Originally posted by schocker

Oh you have never been to houston then. It is pretty much all concrete and is like thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk over and over but you get used to it.:rofl:

Beautiful road designs in Houston -- roadways designed to handle large volumes of traffic (though not the volumes it sees now). However, that is offset by absolute garbage maintenance!

Pot hole-tacular -- it's the kind of city where they get no winter but the pot holes, seams and gaps will give almost any tire bubbled sidewalls in no time flat (brother lived in Houston for almost a decade).

[speedog]

We've got our own really bumpy roads here in Calgary too - McKnight Boulevard on the south side of the airport, what a joke.

[kenny]

We can blame the residents of Inglewood back in the late 60's (i think) for forcing Deerfoot east of the original (better) alignment. Without that shift the Calf Robe bridge wouldn't even be necessary. The bridge would've been near where Memorial Drive is and would've been on a straight section.

In the deep south Deerfoot should've followed the Bow Bottom Trail alignment but they didn't want to plow through Fish Creek Park.

[clem24]

So I just drove on the Calf Robe.. Both ways. I was in the inside (fast) lane. I didn't really notice anything at all. The road surface felt great actually... I am also thankful they got rid of the awful concrete sections from before (south of 17th.. That was absolutely the worst).

[toastgremlin]

Originally posted by revelations
Does anyone have some historical perspective on the CR bridge?

- why was it built with such a sharp S curve? I heard a rumour a few years ago that it was originally designed to be much more straight but a pretty significant mistake was made by the contractor involved with the forms and they had to work around it.

I'm a lot more willing to believe the engineer involved was just a huge fuck-up and it was bad from the design stage. I wonder what else he did before he managed to screw up Deerfoot.

The construction being a mistake would explain why the lanes seem to vary in width throughout the entire bridge. I swear the left lane in the northbound direction grows and shrinks about a meter over the course of the bridge.

[btimbit]

Frost heaves

Oh wait, it was shit before it's first winter.

[black13]

Originally posted by BigShow
So the engineer behind this bridge went on to be the lead engineer at Spy Hill landfill. Among many other shortcomings the landfill caught fire and he was abruptly fired. :banghead:

oh snap was that today? I saw some fire trucks near the landfill today.

[speedog]

Are you guys for real? Frost heaves on a bridge? Screwed up forms and had to work around it? Lanes that vary in width? This thread is becoming quite hilarious.

[kenny]

Originally posted by speedog
Are you guys for real? Frost heaves on a bridge? Screwed up forms and had to work around it? Lanes that vary in width? This thread is becoming quite hilarious.

:rofl: No doubt.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by speedog
Are you guys for real? Frost heaves on a bridge? Screwed up forms and had to work around it? Lanes that vary in width? This thread is becoming quite hilarious.

Yeah, it's a trainwreck. :rofl:

[1barA4]

Originally posted by speedog
We've got our own really bumpy roads here in Calgary too - McKnight Boulevard on the south side of the airport, what a joke.

OMG
I hadn't driven back to the old hood in so long....the road was garbage when I lived in the NE but it's 100x worse now!

[revelations]

Originally posted by clem24
So I just drove on the Calf Robe.. Both ways. I was in the inside (fast) lane. I didn't really notice anything at all. The road surface felt great actually... I am also thankful they got rid of the awful concrete sections from before (south of 17th.. That was absolutely the worst).

I notice it now on the bike and on the car. When I used to drive a SUV for work, it wasnt a big deal.

[btimbit]

Meh, any road that is built smoothly they seem to add speedbumps too anyway.
People bitch about the amount of trucks in this city, but really, you almost need one just to get around.

[canadian booster]

Originally posted by btimbit
Meh, any road that is built smoothly they seem to add speedbumps too anyway.
People bitch about the amount of trucks in this city, but really, you almost need one just to get around.


i can get used to trucks, it's the 90% of the drivers who are egotistical small peckered douche bags that annoy me

no road in calgary compares to the daily grind in saskatoon, wow, if you've never been, it's worth a trip just to experience the roads, bring the kids and mouth guards so your teeth don't chip out

[revelations]

^ I found Winterpeg to be worse than Saskatoon ... spend a week in both locations, back to back.