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

[innsertnamehere]

full interchange from what I recall.

It's funded by Halton Region though so perhaps they are only doing half at first to save some money.

 

[Aplus23]

The 401 east is a mess -

 

[drum118]

The 401 east is a mess -

If you are say eastbound, been that way since day one and will remain until the Mississauga Rd to the Credit River opens.

If you are talking the whole area, other than the eastbound, the westbound has a few areas, but not as bad as the eastbound. The overpass for the Halton Sub area is a mess for both directions.

 

[jamincan]

Westbound 401 through Cambridge was shifted over to the new lanes on the right under Hespeler Rd a few days ago. Although this means that one of the Hespeler ramps now merges instead of continuing as a new lane, it seems that the overall configuration flows a bit better for now.

Meanwhile, this morning the eastbound lanes through that stretch were a mess. I'm hoping they're still in the process of rejigging the lanes, because they had everyone merging down to just three lanes between Hwy 8 and Hespeler Rd, resulting in a massive backup.

 

[vebski]

Several digital sign boards now up over the highway, though not operational yet. A couple more to go up and that will be done with. Lots of work at the connection between the old-new and the new-new section connecting the previous phase and the new phase. Paving operations underway between the 407 and Mississauga Rd EB and lots of work to do in the new express in this section too. Bridge work still continuing at the 401 overpass at the train tracks by Hwy 25, though I can't get a good look at how that is progressing.

Out west they are currently ripping up and fixing up the 401 under the Hespler overpass. This configuration has really slowed traffic as the traffic from Hespler has to merge onto the three narrow lanes we have, rather than those merge lanes just continuing as new lanes, as was the alignment before. Traffic is usually backed up to the ON Route stations heading WB in the afternoon/evening.

Edit: Had a look at the 401 overpass at the rail line by hwy 25. Looks mostly done, filled in to grade too actually, more complete than I thought. Really looking forward to this phase opening.

 

[mtomo]

Just a heads up to lessen the inevitable confusion. If you are getting off at Mississauga Rd or Winston Churchill from 401 WB you will soon need to switch to collectors at the current Mavis exit. This photo was taken in October 2013.

 

[Dan416]

Re

Just a heads up to lessen the inevitable confusion. If you are getting off at Mississauga Rd or Winston Churchill from 401 WB you will soon need to switch to collectors at the current Mavis exit. This photo was taken in October 2013. View attachment 436364

Really for Mavis you should use the 410 exit unless you like crossing over 3 lanes of traffic in a few hundred metres.

 

[Ravager]

This stretch makes me nervous.

 

[drum118]

As far as I know and been months since I was last on the 401 and shot the area, but there will be a crossover from the express to the collector lanes west of the Credit River bridge and the only 5 lanes west of Mississauga Rd to get to the Winston Churchill exit,

You are back to collector and express lanes west of the westbound on ramp from the 407

Getting off for Hurontario from the express lanes per the above photo is fun as well for the Mavis exit west of Hurontario. Better off using the 410 lane change area for both Hurontario, Mavis and Mavis for Mississauga Rd exit.

 

[crs1026]

The big question in my mind is how truck behaviour will emerge once we have collectors and express lanes. If we have trucks jockeying for position in the 2-wide express lanes, it’s going to be a very difficult drive, especially with the institutionalised “drive 130 in the left lane” auto behaviour. If the left lane is marked no trucks, it will be a frustrating drive for the trucks, as the slowest vehicle will lead to backlogs.

Sure makes the cost of aggressively building GO service to London and Cambridge look affordable.

- Paul

 

[Civdis]

Just a heads up to lessen the inevitable confusion. If you are getting off at Mississauga Rd or Winston Churchill from 401 WB you will soon need to switch to collectors at the current Mavis exit. This photo was taken in October 2013. View attachment 436364

Is that a temporary concrete jersey barrier on both sides of a permanent concrete barrier? Never really understood the weird median through this stretch of 401.

 

[Transportfan]

It was a temporary construction barrier.

 

[EYorker]

The big question in my mind is how truck behaviour will emerge once we have collectors and express lanes. If we have trucks jockeying for position in the 2-wide express lanes, it’s going to be a very difficult drive, especially with the institutionalised “drive 130 in the left lane” auto behaviour. If the left lane is marked no trucks, it will be a frustrating drive for the trucks, as the slowest vehicle will lead to backlogs.

Sure makes the cost of aggressively building GO service to London and Cambridge look affordable.

- Paul

If the current express/collector setup in Mississauga is any indication, it'll be the cars hogging the left lane doing 95-105...

From what I see with the new express/collector setup heading westbound past the 407, all the trucks still seem unaware of the split despite signage indicating the split otherwise. I can't even count how many times I have been cut off at the last second by a truck getting over to the middle lane to stay in the express. I typically stay in the collectors now because 1, way less traffic (people seem to think express implies speed). 2, because the express gets slammed into 1 lane versus the 2 lanes of the collectors continuing after the exit to James Snow Pkwy.

 

[Dan416]

It's mind-boggling to me how everyone still piles into the Express lanes, at the last minute, only to get stuck in traffic while the collectors seem relatively empty. And of course all the people last-minute exiting the express-to-collectors-to-Mavis. I thought have express/collectors here would improve things but it has resulted in a shit show because Mavis exit signage is illogical.

 

[crs1026]

It's mind-boggling to me how everyone still piles into the Express lanes, at the last minute, only to get stuck in traffic while the collectors seem relatively empty. And of course all the people last-minute exiting the express-to-collectors-to-Mavis. I thought have express/collectors here would improve things but it has resulted in a shit show because Mavis exit signage is illogical.

Coming into Toronto during rush hour, from James slow over to the current split near Mavis, the right hand lane clearly moves fastest. Drivers seem to assume that the left lane is always fastest, but that lane is so clogged with cars that it jams up. Driving between two 18-wheelers in the rightmost lane is a bit less pleasant, but they move along much better.

I will be interested to see how traffic patterns change once the express is extended west of Mississauga Road. The volume of cars entering the eastbound 401 at that intersection is practically a full solid lane. The merge between the right lane and the onramp (and the lane changes that many make from the right lane into the middle lane to bypass that little bit of congestion) is what slows down traffic eastbound. That may smooth out nicely when we get the split moved a bit further west.

- Paul