Portrait of a Cloverleaf

Granville Bridge was built in 1954 for a growing Vancouver, with giant cloverleaf offramps on each end. Today, the city has taken a different direction.

1 minute read

January 23, 2009, 12:00 PM PST

By Tim Halbur

"Now that a City report is recommending the reconfiguration of both loops at the north end of the bridge, only the southwest loop (lower left above) will remain.

Opened in 1954 at the height of the post-war infrastructure boom, the Granville Bridge was vastly overscaled for its purpose. This high-elevation eight-lane structure would never reach its design capacity unless the feeder roads to it were likewise enlarged.

But back then, they presumed that the city would be rescaled for the car, so they built freeway-style cloverleafs at both ends."

Plenty of pictures and diagrams after the jump.

FULL STORY: One Last Loop

Thursday, January 22, 2009 in Price Tags

Infrastructure Transportation British Columbia Vancouver Bridges Cloverleafs Freeway Construction View More

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