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Roads: Highway 401 Widening - Highway 8 to Highway 410 (MTO, U/C, Planned)

Took a drive up 410 today in the HOV lane and saw that the 403/401 west interchange is now open.

Coming home this past weekend, traffic backup starting west of Mississauga Rd and slow driving to the split west of Hurontario. Most of this slow driving was cause by drivers who were clueless how to move from the exiting 401 to the new collector lanes and using the split. Number of drivers crossing 3 lanes to get to the express lanes, considering the overhead signs are clear what was coming down the road.

Heading west in Cambridge before Christmas, traffic was very slow and was caused by traffic trying to get hwy 8.

A few months of work and paving left to be done for the new centre lanes around hwy 24 area.

Do you mean 403 heading north (east) now has the ramp to the 401 (westbound) open now? Since the 401 East to 403 West ramp opened a few weeks ago.
 
Took a drive up 410 today in the HOV lane and saw that the 403/401 west interchange is now open.

Coming home this past weekend, traffic backup starting west of Mississauga Rd and slow driving to the split west of Hurontario. Most of this slow driving was cause by drivers who were clueless how to move from the exiting 401 to the new collector lanes and using the split. Number of drivers crossing 3 lanes to get to the express lanes, considering the overhead signs are clear what was coming down the road.

Heading west in Cambridge before Christmas, traffic was very slow and was caused by traffic trying to get hwy 8.

A few months of work and paving left to be done for the new centre lanes around hwy 24 area.
I would say some drivers are incapable of navigating just by road signs. Our road test, or road test in general does nothing to test that skill at all.
 
after all is done, what is the WB exit to Mavis going to look like for the express lanes? is there going to be a transfer from express to collectors after Hurontario, or do you have to transfer earlier?
 
after all is done, what is the WB exit to Mavis going to look like for the express lanes? is there going to be a transfer from express to collectors after Hurontario, or do you have to transfer earlier?
Don't see a connection from the express to Collector until the next phase, with the Hurontario being use for Mavis. Most likely see connections to/from the express lane, west of Mississauga Rd, since it has a long distance to Winston Churchill and 407.
 

Preferred Proponent Selected for Highway 401 Expansion Project
March 08, 2019
TORONTO -Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) have selected West Corridor Constructors as the preferred proponent to design, build and finance the Highway 401 Expansion project.
West Corridor Constructors team includes:
  • Developer: Aecon infrastructure Management Inc. (Aecon), Parsons Inc. (Parsons), and Amico Design Build Inc. (Amico)
  • Constructors: Aecon, Amico
  • Designers: Parsons (Lead Designer), Hatch, EXP
  • Financial: National Bank Financial
The selection of West Corridor Constructors is the result of an open, fair and competitive procurement process overseen by a third-party fairness advisor.
IO and MTO expect to reach financial close in late April 2019.
 
This is for the 18-km long piece between the Credit River (east of Mississauga/Erin MIlls Road) and Highway 25 in Milton.

Amazingly how slow the IO procurement process is. The RFQ was issued 2 years ago!
 
This is for the 18-km long piece between the Credit River (east of Mississauga/Erin MIlls Road) and Highway 25 in Milton.

Amazingly how slow the IO procurement process is. The RFQ was issued 2 years ago!
That really depends on how you look at it.
Request for qualifications (RFQ, not to be confused with Request For Quotations) were issued in April 2017 and qualified proponents were selected in September of that same year. There was a 5 month delay getting the Request for proposals out, but the RFP only opened a year ago. So 12 months from launch of RFP to selecting a preffered proponent, granted it has not yet been signed.

The 4-km widening to the east of this project, contract #2015-2018, which was procured in the traditional DBB (Design-Bid-Build) format had no prequalification. It was first advertised in November 2015, tender closed in February 2016 and was awarded in April of that year. 6 months lead time for a project less than 1/4 the size of the project to the west.
 
Update on the 401 through Cambridge, for those who don’t travel out there often.

Most of the construction equipment has been moved out of the area in the last 2 weeks, there is a crew near Speedsville road on the EB side and a container heading towards Hespler, that’s pretty much it. There is a small, unpaved section on the WB side, heading up to the highway 8 entrance and another small area where the concrete barrier needs to be put in place (last section!), but that’s about it. Other than the final paving job and putting up overhead signs, this section looks to be finishing up soon! It’s my daily commute and will really help when I head back into Cambridge around 3 pm.

If anyone has any actual info on the opening date, please post it, I’ve been digging for info but it seems there is not much available.

*Edit 30/05
Another section of the median has been put in, I think there is one more small, open section though. Inching closer....
 
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Another update from Cambridge. There was a CTV News Kitchener story done on the widening, looks like the opening will be in July.

Looks like they are tying up loose ends (small sections of paving, concrete pouring) and will be getting ready for the big final pave soon. They’ll likely be closing lanes overnight and they usually put out signs on the 401 and 8 warning in advance. I’ll be looking out for them!
 
July 13
Handrail being installed on the 2nd line bridge and expect to be open in 2020.

Work taking place to update the tunnel under the centre lane for the creek by 2nd line.

Lots of light support and traffic sign base in place in the centre of the existing road, along with drainage.

The westbound lanes are being graded west of McLaughlin Rd to the point concrete road can be started to be pour for the new road. Eastbound has a lot more to be done on it.

The existing road has yet to be remove east of McLaughlin Rd to where Hurontario section ended. Lots of work to be done on the west side of McLaughlin Rd.

Summer 2020 will see the work completed for this section.

49 photos are up on site for this area.
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Cambridge update. After a bunch of work on the shoulders (new shoulder barricades on EB from hwy 8 to speedsville and beyond, repairing (new?!) barricades over and around the Speed River bridge and other misc work), it appears that the final pave is happening! Hype! 401 ramp from Hwy 8 will be closed Aug 23rd at 10pm. Paving has begun on EB 401 from Hwy 8. Not expecting an August opening but hopefully “soon”!
 
Between Cambridge and Mississauga, hopefully the 401 will be a much friendlier place to drive in the next year or so. Especially once Cambridge phase 2 and the Milton widening are done...

MTO seems to have stepped up urban widenings in the GTA a bit in the last few years, I wonder what the next round will be. Haven't seen any new announcements in while since the 404 widening was announced.
 
Between Cambridge and Mississauga, hopefully the 401 will be a much friendlier place to drive in the next year or so. Especially once Cambridge phase 2 and the Milton widening are done...

MTO seems to have stepped up urban widenings in the GTA a bit in the last few years, I wonder what the next round will be. Haven't seen any new announcements in while since the 404 widening was announced.

I'm thinking the 403 south of 407 will be next so the proper connection can be made to the EB and WB QEW and the HOV lanes can be extended. I also hope MTO will consider widening the 403 through Mississauga as it could realistically use another general purpose lane. A lot of bottlenecks in that stretch even with the HOV lane.
 
I'm thinking the 403 south of 407 will be next so the proper connection can be made to the EB and WB QEW and the HOV lanes can be extended. I also hope MTO will consider widening the 403 through Mississauga as it could realistically use another general purpose lane. A lot of bottlenecks in that stretch even with the HOV lane.
MTO is fixing a lot of the bottlenecks on the QEW through mississauga with the Dixie Road interchange and Credit River Bridge expansion projects. The Dixie Road interchange will add an additional westbound lane from The West Mall to Cawthra, and the Credit River project is adding a lane between Mississauga Road and Hurontario for eastbound traffic.

Long term they have plans for an HOV as well, but that's a while off until the credit river bridge expansion is completed, which I don't think is until 2026. It's a very long timeline project due to the extensive staging required (build new bridge, move traffic onto it, rebuild existing bridge, reconfigure to final alignment).

Widening the QEW and 403 in Oakville is a good option though, for sure. The plan isn't to extend the HOVs on the 403 southbound though, but the HOVs in Oakville will get extended along the QEW into Mississauga.

you can view the plans here (warning, large pdf)

The 403 from Hurontario to Eglinton needs a bit of work due to the bottleneck there (12 lane collector-express to 8 lane regular highway), but west of Hurontario the highway still operates fairly well , beyond rush hour which is of course congested.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some more 400 widenings moving up towards Bradford. I believe the entire 400 is going to be "widened" up to Hwy 9 other than like a small 2km stretch in a few years due to interchange rebuilds, I imagine MTO will simply build the remaining 2km and bring the HOVs up to Hwy 9.

The one other spot that really seems to need some work is Durham on the 401, but I'm not too sure we will see that much action there.
 
Yeah QEW is a big one they need to address but luckily it's being done, however long it will take. I was mistaken thinking the HOV lanes were being extended south on the 403 but I have seen that PDF before. 403-QEW is needed and the QEW HOV lanes into Mississauga will be a good thing too. As for the 403 in Mississauga, I'd consider widening it one extra lane to Mavis for future proofing and to possibly build a proper ROW for the transitway either beside or above the freeway.

I agree that Highway 400 will be widened further all the way through Barrie as that is desperately needed. Unsure of the exact details but they should at least make it 4 lanes GP + 1 HOV all the way to Barrie. Most GTA Highways could use this setup wherever possible. I find that 3 GP lanes + HOV has too many campers and freight vehicles in the middle lane to avoid merging vehicles. 4 lanes would help mitigate that, especially for truck traffic.
 

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