OT: OT thread number 11 | No More Bad News PLEASE!

[Beerfish]

Is there even one square cm of this city that is not under construction? Every major ingress or egress from my area in the south side is closed or partially closed and has been basically all summer.

Then we have the parks, so Hawryluk is closed for three years, fine there are other areas to go to. So I just go down to whitemud hiking trails just off 122 street, a very very popular little area for people to hike. I get there and they have fenced off and closed the parking lot. Finnnnnneeee a bit further down is the bigger parking lot. But wait! At 8:45 am on a Saturday they are doing something further down and there is a long line up of cars just sitting there like a parking lot waiting.

I know, I know third world problems. I just find it amazing that the lack of planning or coordination for big projects. If you are going to close a major park or major road way you do not work on any of the other major ones in that area until the first is done.

There, my whine is over and I now feel better.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Is there even one square cm of this city that is not under construction? Every major ingress or egress from my area in the south side is closed or partially closed and has been basically all summer.

Then we have the parks, so Hawryluk is closed for three years, fine there are other areas to go to. So I just go down to whitemud hiking trails just off 122 street, a very very popular little area for people to hike. I get there and they have fenced off and closed the parking lot. Finnnnnneeee a bit further down is the bigger parking lot. But wait! At 8:45 am on a Saturday they are doing something further down and there is a long line up of cars just sitting there like a parking lot waiting.

I know, I know third world problems. I just find it amazing that the lack of planning or coordination for big projects. If you are going to close a major park or major road way you do not work on any of the other major ones in that area until the first is done.

There, my whine is over and I now feel better.

Yep. We live in a city where its somehow deemed acceptable for the most routine of road or other improvement projects to take either all season or several construction seasons to complete. Not a new thing in Edmonton either.

Our LRT woes basically signify the entire civic establishment.

Love that hiking on whitemud. Did not know the parking lot is closed there. Why?

 

[Beerfish]

Yep. We live in a city where its somehow deemed acceptable for the most routine of road or other improvement projects to take either all season or several construction seasons to complete. Not a new thing in Edmonton either.

Our LRT woes basically signify the entire civic establishment.

Love that hiking on whitemud. Did not know the parking lot is closed there. Why?

They had been working on something to do with the creek and bridge most of the summer. Some small traffic slow downs but not a huge issue, now all of sudden the little parking lot is fenced off and closed, the bigger lot near rainbow valley is still there but as i said it was blocked with a car lineup this am.

 

[Drivesaitl]

They had been working on something to do with the creek and bridge most of the summer. Some small traffic slow downs but not a huge issue, now all of sudden the little parking lot is fenced off and closed, the bigger lot near rainbow valley is still there but as i said it was blocked with a car lineup this am.

Thanks for the update. Whitemud creek is a real pleasure. As busy as the area seems its amazingly underused. To me its one of the most beautiful parts of the ribbon of green that we have. Been through every trail and side trail so many times. Been diverted by moose even on occasion.

 

[Stoneman89]

Is there even one square cm of this city that is not under construction? Every major ingress or egress from my area in the south side is closed or partially closed and has been basically all summer.

Then we have the parks, so Hawryluk is closed for three years, fine there are other areas to go to. So I just go down to whitemud hiking trails just off 122 street, a very very popular little area for people to hike. I get there and they have fenced off and closed the parking lot. Finnnnnneeee a bit further down is the bigger parking lot. But wait! At 8:45 am on a Saturday they are doing something further down and there is a long line up of cars just sitting there like a parking lot waiting.

I know, I know third world problems. I just find it amazing that the lack of planning or coordination for big projects. If you are going to close a major park or major road way you do not work on any of the other major ones in that area until the first is done.

There, my whine is over and I now feel better.

Our neighbourhood is under "renewal", meaning all the sidewalks, curbs, etc and then eventually the roads are being re-done. It's a little better now, but 2-3 weeks ago, there was only one way to get in and out of the hood. Pretty shitty planning if you ask me.

 

[Stoneman89]

I would say #3 as well. The cup doesn't flow into #7 and #1 would never get full enough to fill any of the glasses on the left hand side.

So, is #3 the answer? I would say it is.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Our neighbourhood is under "renewal", meaning all the sidewalks, curbs, etc and then eventually the roads are being re-done. It's a little better now, but 2-3 weeks ago, there was only one way to get in and out of the hood. Pretty shitty planning if you ask me.

Still dreading our backalley renewal next summer which is cited to take 3mths time to complete and during which we have ZERO access to our backalley or our garage. Meaning we have to park the vehicle, and our trailer on the street if we ever intend to be using it...

I wonder if the city will pick up any tabs when our vehicle or trailer gets vandalized or smashed into (while parked) which has occurred with several neighbors.

By choice I never park my vehicles outside. Keep them safer from theft, from hail damage, from idiot damage by parking and keeping them in garage.

In effect for one full summer the city is preventing usage of my garage. For sure this won't be compensated...

3mths to check underground utilities and repave backalley. its beyond silly what the time lines are. Go all in on a project and it should be a week or two. With the closures they enforce theres no way it should take this long, but it does.

 

[Beerfish]

Still dreading our backalley renewal next summer which is cited to take 3mths time to complete and during which we have ZERO access to our backalley or our garage. Meaning we have to park the vehicle, and out trailer on the street if we ever intend to be using it...

I wonder if the city will pick up any tabs when our vehicle or trailer gets vandalized or smashed into (while parked) which has occurred with several neighbors.

By choice I never park my vehicles outside. Keep them safer from theft, from hail damage, from idiot damage by parking and keeping them in garage.

In effect for one full summer the city is preventing usage of my garage. For sure this won't be compensated...

3mths to check underground utilities and repave backalley. its beyond silly what the time lines are. Go all in on a project and it should be a week or two. With the closures they enforce theres no way it should take this long, but it does.

Same here we get a long over due renewal for the allergy which i want but as you say takes a long time and the very worst of it is since we have bike lanes there will be zero parking on the street. Not sure what is going to happen there. I have a few spots right in front of my house but the two Air Bnb places across the street keeps those spots plugged all the time.

 

[Stoneman89]

Still dreading our backalley renewal next summer which is cited to take 3mths time to complete and during which we have ZERO access to our backalley or our garage. Meaning we have to park the vehicle, and out trailer on the street if we ever intend to be using it...

I wonder if the city will pick up any tabs when our vehicle or trailer gets vandalized or smashed into (while parked) which has occurred with several neighbors.

By choice I never park my vehicles outside. Keep them safer from theft, from hail damage, from idiot damage by parking and keeping them in garage.

In effect for one full summer the city is preventing usage of my garage. For sure this won't be compensated...

3mths to check underground utilities and repave backalley. its beyond silly what the time lines are. Go all in on a project and it should be a week or two. With the closures they enforce theres no way it should take this long, but it does.

I hear you, especially about parking the vehicles inside. As you probably remember, I'm in the insurance industry, and I can tell you statistically, that the chances of your vehicle being vandalized or stolen go up astronomically when it's parked outside as opposed to safe and sound, tucked out of sight in a garage. Just one street over, our neighbour usually parks his truck and other vehicle inside the garage every night. However with the construction on his side of the street, he had to park it outside on the other side until construction was finished. Well, it was stolen, along with another persons truck one of those nights. Would never have happened if it was inside his garage.

The other thing I should mention, is that a lot of people don't use their garage for vehicle storage, because it is used for storage of anything and everything else (junk). So they have the option, really , of parking inside, but choose not to. And then they wonder why they are included in the "unlucky ones" who get their vehicle stolen or damaged.

And no, the city has no compensation for parking outside during construction, sorry.

As to them taking so long, I suspect it is because there are multiple layers of types of work being done (removal, sewage, etc) and they are scattered all over the city doing work at other places as it comes up. So a lot of work done, then sitting around for a week or so with nothing, then a bit more, then more sitting while waiting for the next stage to happen. Not crazy about that, but with projects all over the city, it really is no different than house building, where the GC may have to wait for the electician, or plumber etc before they can move on to the next stage.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Same here we get a long over due renewal for the allergy which i want but as you say takes a long time and the very worst of it is since we have bike lanes there will be zero parking on the street. Not sure what is going to happen there. I have a few spots right in front of my house but the two Air Bnb places across the street keeps those spots plugged all the time.

This is our concern as well. We have neighbors that have 5 vehicles on street, some of those being very infrequently used. They park anywhere, including right in front of our house. We're seniors. Our block out front is always full. Am I supposed to park a block away?

Myself and neighbors have requested stickers and that 2 per household or some amount be issued so that they can be placed on cars. We've requested they do a sweep of cars being longterm parked just taking up space. (72hrs is the rule) But we don't expect anythign except headache and not even being able to park anywhere near our house.

You bring this stuff up to the city and its like they never even thought about it. For sure they have no clue how the bolded impacts. Air Bnb are the bane of neighborhoods. That and rentals.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I hear you, especially about parking the vehicles inside. As you probably remember, I'm in the insurance industry, and I can tell you statistically, that the chances of your vehicle being vandalized or stolen go up astronomically when it's parked outside as opposed to safe and sound, tucked out of sight in a garage. Just one street over, our neighbour usually parks his truck and other vehicle inside the garage every night. However with the construction on his side of the street, he had to park it outside on the other side until construction was finished. Well, it was stolen, along with another persons truck one of those nights. Would never have happened if it was inside his garage.

The other thing I should mention, is that a lot of people don't use their garage for vehicle storage, because it is used for storage of anything and everything else (junk). So they have the option, really , of parking inside, but choose not to. And then they wonder why they are included in the "unlucky ones" who get their vehicle stolen or damaged.

The vehicles are aslo in much better shape being parked exclusively in garage. I have no appreciable rust in either the vehicle, or the trailer which is now 27yrs old. The trailer would be junk by now had I parked it outside all the time.

Yeah, I always remember you are in the insurance industry. I'm naturally preventative in nature and like to look after property and acquisitions well.

I hear you as well on the clutter people that occupy whole garages with junk. That species of person has been multiplying. I wonder how many of those people have increased damage through fires, vermin, rot, etc. Some people just don't look after anything.

 

[Beerfish]

When i had a car i always parked in my garage but once I bought a truck when i retired I could no longer park in the garage as it is simply to tall. (I have an older garage). My garage is now a wood working shop but I regret not buying one of those smaller trucks which would have fit in the the garage. My gas tank of my truck woud jot have been drilled if it was in a garage.

 

[Nunymare]

They had been working on something to do with the creek and bridge most of the summer. Some small traffic slow downs but not a huge issue, now all of sudden the little parking lot is fenced off and closed, the bigger lot near rainbow valley is still there but as i said it was blocked with a car lineup this am.

It's for the Whitemud bridges project (part of Terwillegar Drive stage 2: Terwillegar Drive Expansion - Stage Two | City of Edmonton), which will see the bridges widened over the next two years iirc. And a new pedestrian bridge to built parallel to the westbound lanes.

 

[bellagiobob]

Still dreading our backalley renewal next summer which is cited to take 3mths time to complete and during which we have ZERO access to our backalley or our garage. Meaning we have to park the vehicle, and our trailer on the street if we ever intend to be using it...

I wonder if the city will pick up any tabs when our vehicle or trailer gets vandalized or smashed into (while parked) which has occurred with several neighbors.

By choice I never park my vehicles outside. Keep them safer from theft, from hail damage, from idiot damage by parking and keeping them in garage.

In effect for one full summer the city is preventing usage of my garage. For sure this won't be compensated...

3mths to check underground utilities and repave backalley. its beyond silly what the time lines are. Go all in on a project and it should be a week or two. With the closures they enforce theres no way it should take this long, but it does.

I don’t know how the bidding process works on these projects nowadays, but it used to be common for construction firms to bid on more work than they could handle, with the expectation that they would only win a certain percentage of the bids. But certain years you would get ‘lucky’ and win more bids than you could handle, and the expected delays and frustration would be the result. I wonder if that’s still going on, as you see all of the construction signs set up in spring at what seems like every inch of roadway in the city, and then each project gets a few days of work here and there, just enough to keep the city off the contractors back. I get we have limited time to get the work done, and that some projects take a long time, but there are too many of the small projects that could be started and finished quicker, and then move on to the next one, as opposed to the ‘let’s start every possible project at once approach’.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I don’t know how the bidding process works on these projects nowadays, but it used to be common for construction firms to bid on more work than they could handle, with the expectation that they would only win a certain percentage of the bids. But certain years you would get ‘lucky’ and win more bids than you could handle, and the expected delays and frustration would be the result. I wonder if that’s still going on, as you see all of the construction signs set up in spring at what seems like every inch of roadway in the city, and then each project gets a few days of work here and there, just enough to keep the city off the contractors back. I get we have limited time to get the work done, and that some projects take a long time, but there are too many of the small projects that could be started and finished quicker, and then move on to the next one, as opposed to the ‘let’s start every possible project at once approach’.

For sure. One can see how the city is laying these out as well as they are currently going on in various neighborhoods. As @Stoneman89 mentioned they go in, rip up the backalleys, then do one phase after another requiring different trades, maybe even different subcontractors to come in. They start all at once instead of doing the one by one approach that would be least disruptive.

The key point I make is that these are Closures. In the cases of closures the utmost should be done to speed the projects along. To that end the city should be dealing with firms only that handle every facet of the improvements, and that dedicate to the projects and have the resources to do so.

As a homeowner obviously I would prefer an intensive period of work in which everything gets done quickly, rather than a drawn out approach. Even if the latter is less continually disruptive from a noise pov. I'd even be ok with 16hrs of work being done per day just to get it done.

The biggest concern I have is that we live in a city that currently determines that a 3mth window for a routine backalley work is reasonable, and that a 3year closure of the main park in the city is reasonable. Most jurisdictions wouldn't deem it so.

What other city completely closes its top park for 3yrs.

 

[bellagiobob]

For sure. One can see how the city is laying these out as well as they are currently going on in various neighborhoods. As @Stoneman89 mentioned they go in, rip up the backalleys, then do one phase after another requiring different trades, maybe even different subcontractors to come in. They start all at once instead of doing the one by one approach that would be least disruptive.

The key point I make is that these are Closures. In the cases of closures the utmost should be done to speed the projects along. To that end the city should be dealing with firms only that handle every facet of the improvements, and that dedicate to the projects and have the resources to do so.

As a homeowner obviously I would prefer an intensive period of work in which everything gets done quickly, rather than a drawn out approach. Even if the latter is less continually disruptive from a noise pov. I'd even be ok with 16hrs of work being done per day just to get it done.

The biggest concern I have is that we live in a city that currently determines that a 3mth window for a routine backalley work is reasonable, and that a 3year closure of the main park in the city is reasonable. Most jurisdictions wouldn't deem it so.

What other city completely closes its top park for 3yrs.

Four day job for this crew. That’s a two year job in Etown.

 

[Stoneman89]

I don’t know how the bidding process works on these projects nowadays, but it used to be common for construction firms to bid on more work than they could handle, with the expectation that they would only win a certain percentage of the bids. But certain years you would get ‘lucky’ and win more bids than you could handle, and the expected delays and frustration would be the result. I wonder if that’s still going on, as you see all of the construction signs set up in spring at what seems like every inch of roadway in the city, and then each project gets a few days of work here and there, just enough to keep the city off the contractors back. I get we have limited time to get the work done, and that some projects take a long time, but there are too many of the small projects that could be started and finished quicker, and then move on to the next one, as opposed to the ‘let’s start every possible project at once approach’.

Lol, the time honoured approach of most contractors forever. Bid on lots of projects, even a bit more than you can handle, and then do a bit here and a bit there to keep the client off of your back. The theory being, better to have extra work waiting for you, than to run out of work.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Lol, the time honoured approach of most contractors forever. Bid on lots of projects, even a bit more than you can handle, and then do a bit here and a bit there to keep the client off of your back. The theory being, better to have extra work waiting for you, than to run out of work.

Beyond that, some of them do it to keep their crew busy and employed and to use funds from one project to do another (not advisable but something that I have heard of some contractors doing here).

 

[LaGu]

Over here when you see constructions all over it is a sign of not great times, or recovery. Because 90% of works are funded by Gov/Region/Province and it is more about paying people to do something, anything. That is why you normally have 4-5 people standing around looking at others working in most of the road works in Italy .

 

[Drivesaitl]

Same here we get a long over due renewal for the allergy which i want but as you say takes a long time and the very worst of it is since we have bike lanes there will be zero parking on the street. Not sure what is going to happen there. I have a few spots right in front of my house but the two Air Bnb places across the street keeps those spots plugged all the time.

I'm sure to have back alley allergy by this time next year. heh. just making a pun on the spell correct.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Over here when you see constructions all over it is a sign of not great times, or recovery. Because 90% of works are funded by Gov/Region/Province and it is more about paying people to do something, anything. That is why you normally have 4-5 people standing around looking at others working in most of the road works in Italy .

One guy digging and 5 guys holding shovels up.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Over here when you see constructions all over it is a sign of not great times, or recovery. Because 90% of works are funded by Gov/Region/Province and it is more about paying people to do something, anything. That is why you normally have 4-5 people standing around looking at others working in most of the road works in Italy .

Its required to have 10 of these here in any small project. 6 of them to be holding up shovels just in case somebody looks. In which case they continue to do nothing and lean harder..

you can't overwork these poor sods. Hanging on a shovel all day takes proper balance and training.

One guy digging and 5 guys holding shovels up.

ffs sake, we posted this simultaneously, lol

 

[bellagiobob]

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

So, is #3 the answer? I would say it is.

Yes I believe so

 

[Stoneman89]

Yes I believe so