Calgary's population has recently exceeded the one million mark. Many of the City's intersections are now at capacity, and desperately need improvement. One of the busiest intersections in Calgary is Macleod Trail and 25 Avenue SE. Macleod Trail is an important north-south arterial road, with an average daily traffic (ADT) of 53,000 vehicles trips per day (vpd). 25 Avenue is an east-west through road with an ADT of 17,000 vpd. Major arterials in built-up urban areas face problems not necessarily present in typical freeway-type interchange design. In such built-up areas, there is usually insufficient room for the construction of expansive loop ramps. Maintaining the existing flow of traffic during implementation is another critical consideration. The proximity of existing commuter transit and/or freight rail lines is often an added constraint. The paper outlines some of the unconventional options considered in the functional design of the interchange, and attempts to rationalize a methodology of alternative selection using a context sensitive design approach. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E216511.
Samenvatting