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

Steve X said:
I'm not the biggest fan of a 10 lane free for all highway. There's just too much weaving for those who want to get a while while having idiots doing 95km/h on the second or third lane. If the core-collector system isn't present over the 401/407 intersection stretch, we'll have people cutting across 3-5 lanes of traffic from 401 express to the 407 ramp and vice versa. It's like exiting the 401 WB to 427 SB and realized the the left most lane of the three lane exit meant you have 1km to cut across 5 lanes of traffic to get into the collector to exit Burnhamthorpe. 1 km of driving at 120-130km/h is less than 30 seconds!

The 407 between the 427 and 400 is particularly a mess with 6 lanes both direction.
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MTO tries to limit highway widths to 5 lanes in each direction, though they have exceptions, like the 407 in the mentioned portion or parts of the 400 between the 401 and 407. With modern HOV standards, its essentially 4+1 as HOVs are semi-express due to their limited access points.
 
From my point of view, 401 needs to be 4 lanes from Windsor to Kingston, but why stop there and not continue to Quebec. Depending the time of day as well the time of year, you need that extra lane.

I don't support HOV with only 2 people or paying for it, as you can slow pokes in that lane as well illegal drivers in the first place. Its bad enough having slow drivers in the pasting lane let alone drivers who think the passing lane is a normal lane and refused to move out of the way when being over taken. They are the ones who cause accidents regardless if the other person is speeding. I don't try to keep a tack of cars passing me in excess of 30k or more above the speed limit while at 5-20 over in the first place.

There are many spots that require more lanes than 4 and some are underway, others already plan for, but not for others at this time.

I would love to see trucks only lanes since this will speed things up for them as well not dealing with dumb car drivers.
 
drum118 said:
From my point of view, 401 needs to be 4 lanes from Windsor to Kingston, but why stop there and not continue to Quebec. Depending the time of day as well the time of year, you need that extra lane.
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When have you seen issues where 2 lanes isn't enough east of Highway 15?

East 0f 416 can get pretty quiet - I can't see that being third-laned for a long, long time - let alone 4! There's a big step in costs from 3 to 4. They can get a 3rd lane in without widening most of the overpasses. But 4 normally requires a completely new bridge structure.
 
jamincan said:
I drive this part of the 401 every day. Unless there's some sort of accident, you don't typically see any traffic issues between Franklin in Cambridge and 25 in Milton. Most major slowdowns, even in Milton, are related to lane-changing around interchanges, so I doubt the section between 6 and 25 will need widening for a very long time.
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What's curious is that all the bridge re-hab that's taken place in the last year or more between the Guelph Junction railway and Hwy 25 has appeared to me to include the necessary widening for 401 lane expansions. I've just assumed the whole time that this was coming soon.

Edit to add: You can already see the new span over the Guelph Junction railway in Google Maps' satellite view.
 
From MTO:

Anticipated West-East Ramp (Highway 8 to Highway 401) Ramp Closure: FULL CLOSURE April 22 - 11:00 pm to 4:30 am (April 23)
Anticipated East-West Ramp (Highway 401 to Highway 8) Single Lane Ramp Closure: April 24 - April 28 11:00 pm to 6:00 am
North / South to East Ramp ( King Street/Shantz Hill to Highway 401) Single Lane Ramp Closure: April 24 - April 28 9:00 pm to 6:00 am
Ramps will not be closed simultaneously.
 
From what I saw a few weeks ago, a number of bridge widening is underway between 25 & 6. They been on going since 2016 and look to be 8 lanes.

The ramp off 8 to the 401 eastbound should be finish this year and open with the new off ramp to hwy 24 open before it.

The off ramp from 401 to 8 should be completed by Sept, but don't hold me to that since I didn't look closely at it on my last trip

The old centre lanes between 8 & 24 are to be raise a few feet as well the rebuilding of the bridges to the new hight.

There was some talk that the 401 will be widen west of 8 after the current work is done for a short section and don't know where it stands since I don't follow the highway work in the first place.

Even after all the expansion is done between 25 and Mavis, still expect to see backup very close to what we see today and one reason both Metrolinx and the province need to 4 track the Milton line.

With the warm weather here now and asphalt plants in service, nightly and weekend closure are upon us and good thing I only use the 401 a few times a year. My next use will be around May 11 going west and coming home by the QEW.

They were sill working on the piers for the bridge west of Mavis with most of the grading done east of it to start concrete road work.
 
drum118 said:
From what I saw a few weeks ago, a number of bridge widening is underway between 25 & 6. They been on going since 2016 and look to be 8 lanes.
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Yes, I've been reading from some MTO reports they'll be working on another bridge crossing the Grand River & 401; so I'm expecting a widening. There is also in MTO's long term plan for a 401 West London exit from Hwy 8 south. This would alleviate the backup of traffic from Hwy 8 & King St to 401.
 
It will be interesting to see how the widening work they're doing now through Cambridge, including the new ramp to Hwy 8 would help the phantom congestion.
 
Announced in the 2017 Ontario budget today.
  • Replacement of the bridges over the Grand River on Highway 401 in the City of Kitchener. Construction is expected to start in 2019 and be completed in 2022.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Wonder if this includes more than just the Grand River bridges.. I.E. building the missing Highway 8 ramps.
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At the very least it will accommodate them in the future. It's my wife and I's daily commute and we've often remarked how we want those ramps but there's no way to land them with the Grand so close and the existing bridges so narrow.
 
I've always assumed they would just close the King S-401W and 401E-King S ramps, directing that traffic onto the NE and SE ramps of the King St. interchange, opening up space for the 8S-401W and 401E-8N ramps in their place.

Isn't there an actual drawing showing the eventual planned interchange floating around somewhere?
 
jamincan said:
Isn't there an actual drawing showing the eventual planned interchange floating around somewhere?
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This one? It's pretty old.

bUl9eaw.jpg


Found via
https://www.reddit.com/r/waterloo/comments/3i3jim/highway_401_8_improvements/
 
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