December 12, 2017

The December meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Tuesday, December 12, 2017 at 12 noon at the Masonic Temple, 420 Corydon Avenue (at Confusion Corner).

The speakers were Mark Vogt from WSP and James Hudson from HTFC.

Mark has worked as a Transportation EIT at WSP (formerly MMM) since completing his graduate studies at the University of Manitoba in 2015. He has been involved in design and contract administration predominantly within Winnipeg’s Exchange District, focusing on the alteration of the existing right of way to enhance the pedestrian environment. Most recently, Mark has completed projects on Lily Street, John Hirsch Place, and Pacific Avenue and is currently working on James Avenue to be completed in 2018.

James is a senior landscape architect at HTFC with a growing portfolio of urban design and streetscape projects in the City of Winnipeg and beyond. Recent local experience includes the North East Exchange District Engineering Study, and various projects within the East Exchange including the Elgin shared pedestrian vehicle laneway, Market, Bertha, Rorie and Lily streetscapes and the John Hirsch ‘Woonerf’.

The presentation provided an overview of the Northeast Exchange Study and the projects that have been completed to date specifically focusing on Manitoba’s first “Woonerf” street, John Hirsch Place. The presentation provided insight into the challenges and successes of integrating landscaping and streetscaping with traditional roadworks projects to create unique spaces for pedestrians and vehicles that blends with the surrounding land use.

The luncheon also included a short AGM to sum up the 2017 year, including the mid-term election of Rebecca Peterniak to the Treasurer position of the ITE Manitoba Section Executive Committee for the 2017/2018 term.

 

November 8, 2017

The November meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at 12 noon at the Masonic Temple, 420 Corydon Avenue (at Confusion Corner).

The speaker was Edward Soldo from the City of London. Edward is the Director of Roads and Transportation for the City and is also the President of the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Edward oversees a multi-disciplinary team responsible for all aspects of the transportation system in London, including the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of all transportation infrastructure, and is also leading the implementation of the City’s rapid transit system. He has over 22 years of experience in the municipal and consulting environments.

Edward provided the membership an update of CITE district activities plus a presentation entitled, “Shift – London’s Rapid Transit Network Initiative”.  Shift is a bold and important transportation and city-building initiative for London. It focuses on developing Rapid Transit as a core mobility option in a multi-modal transportation system that will help London continue to grow towards a prosperous and sustainable future.

The presentation provided an overview of the project, the development of alternatives and the process undertaken to determine the preferred BRT solution from a mobility, city building, economic development and financial affordability perspective.

 

September 21, 2017

The September meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Thursday, September 21, 2017 starting at 12 noon at the Masonic Temple, 420 Corydon Avenue (at Confusion Corner).

The speaker was Steven Florko, EIT at Stantec Consulting Ltd.

Steven has worked in transportation for four years. During that time he has completed more than two dozen transportation studies on new developments in Winnipeg, Brandon, and other communities in Manitoba. His involvement with the CPR Yards Crossing Functional Design Study included forecasting future traffic flows and conducting traffic analyses. His interests in transportation focus on relationships between transportation and land use, and the role of transportation in making communities that are good places to live.

Steven’s presentation was on the transportation planning and traffic engineering elements of the CPR Yards Crossing Functional Design Study. With the Arlington Street Bridge nearing the end of its useable life, this study was undertaken to determine the need for mobility across the CPR yards both now and into the future, and how that need can best be met. Stakeholders were consulted, travel demand was estimated, alternatives were developed and evaluated, and solutions were proposed. The proposed solutions are currently being carried forward and refined in the Preliminary Design Study. Progress can be followed at A Better Bridge for Arlington.

 

June 29, 2017

The June meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Thursday, June 29, 2017 starting at 12 noon at the Masonic Temple, 420 Corydon Avenue (at Confusion Corner).

The presenter was Bill Menzies, Senior Transit Planner with Dillon Consulting.  Bill joined Dillon in 2012 after a 32 year career with Winnipeg Transit.  He was the City’s project manager for the Southwest Transitway Stage 1 project that opened in April 2012.  With Dillon, he has continued his involvement in the project, functioning as project coordinator for the development of the functional design for Stage 2, providing assistance during the P3 procurement, and undertaking design review as part of Dillon’s Owners Advocate role.  Since joining Dillon, he was worked on a variety of BRT, transit planning, and transit management assignments in Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Gatineau, Hamilton, London, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton.

Bill’s presentation provided an overview of the design, operations planning, and simulation modeling of the recently-completed Stadium Station at Investors Group Field.  Part of the “early works” of the Stage 2 project recently completed in the former Southwood Golf Course lands, the new Stadium Station is now ready for service for the upcoming Blue Bomber season and the 2017 Canada Summer Games.  With the station slated for its initial use shortly after the ITE luncheon, this presentation provided a timely look at the station design and how it works.

 

May 11, 2017

The May meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at the Masonic Temple, 420 Corydon Avenue (at Confusion Corner).

The speaker was Caleb Olfert, winner of the Kean Lew Memorial Student Paper and Presentation Competition. The prize is awarded for an outstanding student paper/presentation submitted to ITE Manitoba.  It is given in memory of Mr. Kean Lew, P. Eng., a graduate of the Civil Engineering program at the University of Manitoba and active member of ITE Manitoba, who tragically lost his life in 2009.  The award is generously supported by members of ITE Manitoba.

Caleb shared his research on pedestrian monitoring in downtown Winnipeg. His presentation is titled Pedestrian Monitoring: A Standardized Approach for Continuous Count Location Selection in Highly Urbanized Environments.

Caleb is currently a graduate student at the University of Manitoba studying transportation engineering. Through undergraduate and graduate research, Caleb’s work has primarily involved developing a pedestrian monitoring program for downtown Winnipeg. This topic has guided his master’s thesis as well as the paper which was submitted for the Kean Lew Memorial Student Paper Competition.

In 2014, the Winnipeg Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies was published to guide active transportation investment over the following 20 years. Within this report, a high priority was placed on the implementation of a pedestrian and cycling monitoring program for the purpose of allocating resources, prioritizing investment, and measuring success. The paper being presented highlights steps which were taken to implement a pedestrian count strategy in a portion of Winnipeg’s downtown area. This method outlines coverage and continuous count approaches as well as methods to deal with the large and sporadic effects of large events hosted in Winnipeg’s downtown arena.

 

April 18, 2017

The April meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at12 noon at the Masonic Temple, 420 Corydon Avenue (at Confusion Corner).

The speaker was Scott Suderman C.E.T., P. Eng.

Scott is a transportation engineering professional with over 10 years of experience in both the public sector and the consulting industry. He has a variety of experience in the planning and design of all types of transportation facilities. Within the City of Winnipeg Public Works Department, Scott currently leads the Transportation Facilities Branch.

Scott’s presentation was on upgrading the existing bike lanes on the Fort Street / Garry Street couplet to protected bike lanes in consultation with stakeholders and the public.

Multiple options where developed and evaluated and a recommended option was identified.  The City is now moving forward with implementation starting in 2017 for the permanent protected bike lanes in addition to renewing downtown infrastructure.  This major project will be a milestone for mobility and infrastructure renewal in Winnipeg’s downtown. The project started with substantial public opposition that was overcome through an adaptive and significant public engagement process.  The public engagement process as well as solutions to overcoming the technical challenges was discussed in this presentation.

 

March 15, 2017

The March meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. at the City of Winnipeg Transportation Management Centre at 821 Elgin Street.

The City of Winnipeg Traffic Signals Branch hosted our group for a tour of their recently opened Transportation Management Centre (TMC). Our tour guides were Michael Cantor and Jon Foord, both of the City of Winnipeg Traffic Signals Branch.

This event offered a unique opportunity to tour this 3.6 million dollar transportation engineering facility. The TMC monitors the operation of approximately 650 traffic signals across Winnipeg and provides operators the ability to remotely respond to signal malfunctions and traffic flow variations caused by collisions, weather, barricades, etc. in real-time. The TMC is also connected to 70 strategically placed traffic cameras and is sharing data with Google’s Waze app.

 

February 16, 2017

The February meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Thursday, February 16, 2017 starting at 11:30 a.m. in the Engineering Information and Technology Complex at the University of Manitoba.

The speaker was Jen Malzer, CITE President and Pedestrian Planner for the City of Calgary.

Jen Malzer is the current CITE President and Pedestrian Planner for the City of Calgary. She is a two-time graduate from the University of Manitoba where she studied heavy trucking before falling in love with walking, cycling and transit. Jen is a 20-year commuter cyclist and spent four years teaching the Transit City course at the University of Calgary. Some of her projects at the City of Calgary include the SW BRT concept study, North Central LRT corridor study and downtown subway review.  Jen’s not afraid of a little public engagement and is currently leading the development of Calgary’s tactical urbanism program.

Jen presented on exciting upcoming CITE activities and directions, and getting started on Calgary’s Pedestrian Strategy.

Calgary’s first pedestrian strategy was approved in 2016 and includes 49 actions to help make Calgary safer, more comfortable and interesting for walking. The strategy, called StepForward, is built on the concerns and opportunities for improvement, shared through public engagement by thousands of Calgarians. It helps direct the many existing programs by the City and our outside partners, while also identifying new priority areas. This presentation gave an overview of early initiatives including a street lab party that featured community built temporary pedestrian, biking (hay bale cycle tracks!) and placemaking to launch Calgary into its tactical urbanism program.

 

January 17, 2017

The January meeting of the ITE Manitoba Section was held on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 starting at 12 noon at the Masonic Temple, 420 Corydon Avenue (at Confusion Corner).

The speaker was Donovan Toews of Landmark Planning & Design.

Donovan has 17 years experience in the planning field. He was a business leader for the largest planning group in Manitoba for seven years and has an established reputation as a leader in effective public engagement practices. Donovan is a principal of Landmark Planning and manages major projects throughout Manitoba. Donovan is an active volunteer in the planning community and has served as president of the Manitoba Professional Planners Institute and Vice President of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Donovan’s discussion topic was “Let’s be honest: Is stakeholder input ACTUALLY valuable for infrastructure projects??”