What's wrong with bringing 97 Street up to grade and then placing a pedestrian bridge over 97 Street? …
The RAM’s parking and basement service access all come off of 97th Street just south of the bridge even though they did have another option for that (and for their loading dock location and access for that matter instead of placing out at the corner of one of downtown’s major entry intersections).

As a result, 97th Street could be raised to the level of the existing adjacent sidewalks under the bridge but no more than that. The result would be much like Jasper Avenue between 109 and 110 Street.
 
Since this brought up again, I too suggest that they change things up by getting rid of the sidewalk underneath and widening the roadway a bit, and then the reroute the walking and cycling path onto the topside area of the bridge. Then connect and extend Mary Burlie park to the bridge area.
 
Demolition is almost done

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The old CN bridge currently being discussed

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Since this brought up again, I too suggest that they change things up by getting rid of the sidewalk underneath and widening the roadway a bit, and then the reroute the walking and cycling path onto the topside area of the bridge. Then connect and extend Mary Burlie park to the bridge area.
This is the right solution. Leave the vehicular underpass and put people up top away from the cars and into a connected park.
 
This is the right solution. Leave the vehicular underpass and put people up top away from the cars and into a connected park.

Since this brought up again, I too suggest that they change things up by getting rid of the sidewalk underneath and widening the roadway a bit, and then the reroute the walking and cycling path onto the topside area of the bridge. Then connect and extend Mary Burlie park to the bridge area.
That part of the equation works but how do you convince developers to build something nice around a 100 year old hole in the ground?
 
That part of the equation works but how do you convince developers to build something nice around a 100 year old hole in the ground?
Eliminating the sidewalk works but you can’t likely “widen the car lanes” as the abutments/foundations can’t be removed.

We had some very interesting architectural concepts for the street edges facing that 100 year old hole in the ground… The east end of the P1 parkade level was converted to retail along with a porte couchiere set back from the property line to widen the pedestrian domain (similar to what was done alone the 101 Street edge). The porte couchiere could serve either a hotel or a residential tower.
 
Eliminating the sidewalk works but you can’t likely “widen the car lanes” as the abutments/foundations can’t be removed.

We had some very interesting architectural concepts for the street edges facing that 100 year old hole in the ground… The east end of the P1 parkade level was converted to retail along with a porte couchiere set back from the property line to widen the pedestrian domain (similar to what was done alone the 101 Street edge). The porte couchiere could serve either a hotel or a residential tower.
Any idea why the conceptuals were shelved? Sounds like they aligned themselves with the public policy of increasing densification downtown. The plan that was selected reduces the number of development options on adjacent properties. A porte couchere serving a hotel or residential tower would have made the property on the east side of 97th Street a desirable location to build. Right now I'd say that it's at the bottom of the list of desirable properties to build on and the 97th Street entrance into the downtown core will likely remain sketchy for years to come.
 

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