Category Archives: Urban Planning

Remove Viaducts + Raise SkyTrain Off Ground

The viaducts in downtown Vancouver are unnecessary and create barriers for pedestrians and vehicles.

Both viaducts are slated for removal.  Fantastic !

Unfortunately, the current proposal is incomplete.

When the SkyTrain was built it had to  dip down under the viaducts and create ground level barriers, surrounded by barbed wire fences, which will remain. Most problematic of these is that it blocks a repositioned Pacific Boulevard from connecting normally with the surrounding streets. Because of this, Pacific Boulevard is forced to sweep north of the SkyTrain and squeeze in below the park.

The SkyTrain doesn’t have to be left on the ground. Rapid Bridge Replacement technology makes it possible to inexpensively raise the SkyTrain rail beds in a single weekend. This is totally cool !

In this long stretch of the new Pacific Boulevard, it has to be crammed up against a very nice park to the north and a long barbed wire fence and busy train track to the south.

This proposal envisions removing both viaducts, raising of SkyTrain, connecting east to west and north to south, connecting Pacific Boulevard to Prior Street and Quebec Street at a single intersection, and adding a waterfront ecological park to False Creek North.

North East False Creek Redevelopment Proposal

Vancouver Viaduct Removal Proposal #147 – Craig Henschel

This proposal shows how raising the SkyTrain can improve the neighbourhood.

Using Rapid Bridge Replacement technologies, the SkyTrain rail bed could be raised, allowing Pacific Boulevard to form a normal urban street pattern, instead of a suburban freeway as is currently envisioned.

Rapid Bridge Replacement allows precast bridge sections to be replaced in a weekend. Raising the SkyTrain would require replacing 8 to 10 precast sections.

There are many examples of Rapid Bridge Replacements. Most are considerably more complex than would be required to raise the SkyTrain rail beds because of the extra excavation and connection work at the ends.  Here are just a few examples:

Rapid Bridge Replacement project – Ottawa’s Highway 417

Elk Creek Rapid Bridge Replacement – Elkton, Oregon

Time-Lapse Example: 24hr Transporter Bridge Replacement

Location of where SkyTrain dips below Viaducts in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia