ericmacm
Active Member
I was out there for work last year and there saw some surveying work going on in the Highway 40 ROW. There are a lot of steps between surveying and construction, but it gives me hope.
I was equally skeptical about Highway 3.
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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion
- Thread starter Haljackey
- Start date
I was equally skeptical about Highway 3.
Haljackey
Active Member
It's also political. Essex / Windsor Tecumseh can lean NDP sometimes but if the PCs commit to widening Highway 3 that's a big win for votes. Not saying it's the sole reason why the ridings turned tory blue last election but I am sure it had some implications.
Not much has been done in the Sarina area since the 402 was upgraded approaching the Blue Water Bridge, and that's not really for the locals. They see the lack of progress twinning Highway 40 which has a right of way sitting there since like the 70s as inaction. While the area is PC already a project like this might help keep it that way.
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As construction season has begun again, what would you say is the biggest project in the provice this year? The 401 widening in Kitchener just needs some finishing touches. No single large scale project comes to mind this year like the 401 Milton-Mississauga work last year. Maybe some widening on the 400?
innsertnamehere
Superstar
404 widening should *finally* finish up this year. It's the last of the bunch of large HOV widenings in the GTA the Liberals funded in the dying days of their government (410, 401 widening, 427 widening, 404 widening).
The big spending is on the 400 though, yes. 2023 will have the already underway widening between King Rd and Highway 9 continue, and work will start to widen the literally just widened stretch from Major Mackenzie to King Rd by adding another general purpose lane. The widening south of Major Mackenzie to Langstaff, adding an HOV lane, will begin in 2024. All three of these project are scheduled to wrap up at once at the end of 2025 with a 10-lane cross section south of Highway 9.
A whole lot of other work is happening on the 400 though in 2023, including:
1. Anne St Bridge Replacement completion
2. Sunnidale Rd Bridge Replacement start
3. Essa Rd Interchange Replacement
4. Innisfil Beach Rd Interchange Replacement
5. North Canal Rd Bridge Replacement (this will finally close the Canal Rd at-grade intersection with the 400)
2024 will bring more major spending on the 400:
1. Widening from Langstaff to King Rd
2. Dunlop St Interchange Replacement
3. Highway 88 Interchange Replacement
4. Bayfield Road Interchange Replacement
After these projects wrap up, the entire 400 will be "ready" to be widened. I expect that funding will come through very, very soon for that..
Elsewhere in the province, another 401 widening south of London will start, extending the 6-lane section south to Highway 4 and replacing the second-last cloverleaf interchange on a 400-series highway, and the Highway 3 widening mentioned above will start construction.
The big spending is on the 400 though, yes. 2023 will have the already underway widening between King Rd and Highway 9 continue, and work will start to widen the literally just widened stretch from Major Mackenzie to King Rd by adding another general purpose lane. The widening south of Major Mackenzie to Langstaff, adding an HOV lane, will begin in 2024. All three of these project are scheduled to wrap up at once at the end of 2025 with a 10-lane cross section south of Highway 9.
A whole lot of other work is happening on the 400 though in 2023, including:
1. Anne St Bridge Replacement completion
2. Sunnidale Rd Bridge Replacement start
3. Essa Rd Interchange Replacement
4. Innisfil Beach Rd Interchange Replacement
5. North Canal Rd Bridge Replacement (this will finally close the Canal Rd at-grade intersection with the 400)
2024 will bring more major spending on the 400:
1. Widening from Langstaff to King Rd
2. Dunlop St Interchange Replacement
3. Highway 88 Interchange Replacement
4. Bayfield Road Interchange Replacement
After these projects wrap up, the entire 400 will be "ready" to be widened. I expect that funding will come through very, very soon for that..
Elsewhere in the province, another 401 widening south of London will start, extending the 6-lane section south to Highway 4 and replacing the second-last cloverleaf interchange on a 400-series highway, and the Highway 3 widening mentioned above will start construction.
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W. K. Lis
Superstar
...with the slow drivers going at or lower than the posted speed limit in the left lanes, on roads designed for the "safety" of speeders doing 140+ km/h.
Dan416
Senior Member
What they should do is widen the 410 in the section north of Queen/Bovaird that didn't get widened in the last round.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
MTO is looking into it:
About the Project – MTO – Highway 410 Queen Street to Bovaird Drive
hwy410queentobovaird.ca
Dan416
Senior Member
Right you are and apparently my sister is working on that project and didn't tell me lol.MTO is looking into it:
About the Project – MTO – Highway 410 Queen Street to Bovaird Drive
lenaitch
Senior Member
This one is going to be messy. Dunlop as well but perhaps a little less. Widening or no, both need to be improved.
W. K. Lis
Superstar
From "CityNerd"...
facepalming_brooklynite
Active Member
You beat me to it
Deadpool X
Senior Member
401 widening in Durham should be prioritized. 401 drops from 10 lanes to 6 lanes in Ajax and traffic always chokes up there. With more people moving to Durham, it's going to get a lot worse.
Haljackey
Active Member
It's very aggravating, especially going eastbound. 2 lane drops at Salem too close by creates one heck of a bottleneck. To remedy things a bit for now, a 4th lane should be extended to the 412. I was surprised this didn't happen when the interchange was built, but perhaps they didn't want a travel lane defaulting onto a toll highway? Since the tolls were removed on the 412 now, that is no longer an issue.
I agree. I was really surprised when they built the 412 and dropped down to 3 EB lanes before adding the exit lanes for the 412. Would have made far more sense to have carried the 4th lane through and made it an exit only lane onto the 412.
In general, this is one of my pet peeves with the MTO and their highway design. They're very fond of creating pinch points where there doesn't need to be one. The one that irks me the most is the EB (NB) 403 between the QEW and Dundas. The 3rd lane merges in, and less than 200m down the road the exit ramp lane for Dundas appears. Why not just continue that lane through?
Northern Light
Superstar
I think greater GO service on LSE (15M 2-way, all-day, full GO Co-pay, slightly lower GO fares) and the extension to Bomanville should generally come first. I'm not opposed to minor improvements in highway capacity, particularly those that aid basic 'flow'; but for the most part expanded highway capacity is the wrong way to go. For one thing, if you induce more Toronto-bound commuters in the AM with said capacity, you have no ability to expand 401 capacity or DVP capacity once they get to the City. In other words, you just shift the bottleneck to a new point.
Northern Light
Superstar
One strong preference I have is to stop having a must-merge lane on highway entry. I feel this creates many dangerous moves and resulting accidents as people ramp up to highway speed and then, sometimes have no where to go and are running out of room.
I'd prefer to see the entry lane from one interchange, become the exit lane for the next. That way there is much less pressure to merge, and generally, you have at least 2km to get into an ongoing travel lane.
I would then like to see most interchanges designed so that the highway exit ramp is on the near-side (better sightlines), comes to a traffic lit intersection with the road to which one is exiting (better safety for pedestrians and cyclists than slip lanes); and the entry point is on the far side, so, if for whatever reason, you were were unsuccessful in merging, forgot, or got off at the wrong exit, there's at least one lane that passes through the intersection to allow you to re-enter the highway almost immediately.
I do agree, additionally, the highway, should transition down in size at logical points (after a major exit, where there is a net drop in traffic); and by and large, should transition down slowly, dropping one lane after each additional exit, not a rapid drop that creates multiple, frequent merging movements.
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