Edmonton, Alberta. 1963 (METS) design study for a US style freeway loop enclosing the downtown area.
The mind boggles...
Traffic to this day is majorly restricted in the north/south axis. The South East/North East freeways have merit, particularly as the alignments were already laid out/acquired and would not have caused much displacement on established areas at the time. Without the build out of the East Leg (which
Would cause major acquisition/displacement issues) the whole idea becomes troublesome. That such an audacious idea was contemplated (to the point of funding a multi-million dollar design stage) is either far thinking...or just bat$h!t crazy!
The Jasper Freeway (aligned down McKinnon Ravine) would have been a very good way of getting people into the core, coming from the southwest quadrant of the city. Two different civic governments tried to build a scaled back version of this particular segment (as a four lane divided arterial) but the public backlash was heavy.
Much of this is impractical, but
some of it's elements would be very nice to have, now that there are 1.2 million souls in the Greater area.
One of the four spans (the northernmost) of the James MacDonald bridge system was built between 1968-71 and serves to this day in it's original "temporary" configuration. Designed to a 100km/h standard (posted at 60km/h) for the westbound collector lanes of the freeway, it is now a favorite spot for the Edmonton Police Service to pad their pockets.
This
LINK contains scans of many of DeLeuw/Cather's sheets from this original contract.
This was but one part of an evolving, comprehensive transportation plan for the Edmonton region and many other elements have been built over the years. Whitemud Freeway, Yellowhead Trail, Capilano clusterhump (a freeway to nowhere...) and the major arterial on 170th St. on the west side. The initial road works done (since largely demolished and rebuilt during ring road construction) in the 70's on the east side of the city were also a part of the METS concept.