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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

I love highway expansion as much as the next person, but in a way I can see this as a positive that funds have been going to transit over highways, even under Ford's conservative government. I'm not sure how much it fits in with Conservative ideology, but it does seem pragmatic as transit is the only way to really tackle the congestion we see in Toronto and the GTA.

Given this is for the whole province, GTA transit projects are not that relevant here.
 
I mean it's how you define it. It's signed as 11, that is for sure. There is no such thing as "Hwy 400A" in terms of signage.

How MTO Technically designates it in it's internal tracking system, who knows. It appears it's still labelled as "400A" as they are still referencing it as such today. That really doesn't matter though as the general public would have no idea. For any relevant purpose for 99.9% of people, It's Highway 11.

Same thing for 401A and 401B. For all relevant purposes, those highways today are Kingston Road and Dougall Parkway, even if MTO still internally labels them as such.
 
The Highways program has been updated on July 26:


The program now identifies "2025" works specifically, compared to before when it was "2025-2026". There is now a "2026-2027" option instead.

No new expansion projects listed from what I can tell other than "Automated Traffic Management System" installation on the 404.

Couple of notes:

- The North Canal Bridge replacement on the 400 has been deferred to 2025.
- The Caledonia Grand River Bridge replacement (finally) has a start date of 2025, despite the contract having a 2020 contract number..
- "intersection improvements" are identified at Highway 6 as it pulls into Caledonia - I assume this will be the addition of double-left turn lanes or perhaps a roundabout.
- The Grand River Bridges for the new Highway 7 in Kitchener are identified for a 2025 construction start
- The 401 is scheduled to be resurfaced through Morriston in 2025, which seems to suggest that the primary bypass construction is not particularly imminent.
- Dunlop St interchange on the 400 continues to be on pace for replacement next year, as well as the Hwy 93 interchange on 11 just past the split (interestingly labelled as "Hwy 400A")
- Duckworth Bayfield St interchange replacement continues to be listed for "2026-2027", so presumably 2026 start. This represents the last structural replacement required on the 400 after over a decade of replacements of every bridge structure from Vaughan to Barrie.
- the next phases of the 400 extension are listed for "2026-2027".
- The western portion of the Bradford Bypass is listed as "2026-2027".


Overall the actual pace of construction on Provincial highways seems to be low, particularly relating to capacity expansions. As of next year there will be only a single capacity addition under construction in the province - the 400 widening - with most of the long-promised projects continuing to be strung out with no real hard start dates.


Interestingly they removed all 400 extension / 69 expansion projects that go through first nation territories.. which puts some of the 2026-27 stuff in the extremely dubious categories.
 
Nope. 400A was changed to 11.

Nope. Do you want to play again?

IMG_8922.jpeg
 
I mean it's how you define it. It's signed as 11, that is for sure. There is no such thing as "Hwy 400A" in terms of signage.

How MTO Technically designates it in it's internal tracking system, who knows. It appears it's still labelled as "400A" as they are still referencing it as such today. That really doesn't matter though as the general public would have no idea. For any relevant purpose for 99.9% of people, It's Highway 11.

Same thing for 401A and 401B. For all relevant purposes, those highways today are Kingston Road and Dougall Parkway, even if MTO still internally labels them as such.
Are you referring to former Hwy 2A that parallels Kingston Rd. from roughly Highland Creek to Hwy 401? That was downloaded to Toronto back in the late '90s. I don't a reference to 401A or B on the MTO traffic count table I'm looking at.

Internal 'bookkeeping' and public wayfinding don't always parallel, nor do they necessarily need to. When Hwy 400 broke off at Barrie in the 1970s, much of Hwy 11/Yonge St. was still in provincial hands and originally wandered through Barrie to emerge northbound at Penetanguishene Rd. I suppose they could have redesignated 400A to become 11 but there might be internal reasons why they have not.

The public is probably unaware that there are all sorts of 'named' roads in the province that are maintained by the province and have 4-digit administrative numbers.
 
Given this is for the whole province, GTA transit projects are not that relevant here.
This is an urban Toronto forum. Surely infrastructure discussion will and should be through a Toronto lens.

There's enough other places that aren't Toronto or urban-centric.
 
Are you referring to former Hwy 2A that parallels Kingston Rd. from roughly Highland Creek to Hwy 401? That was downloaded to Toronto back in the late '90s. I don't a reference to 401A or B on the MTO traffic count table I'm looking at.

Internal 'bookkeeping' and public wayfinding don't always parallel, nor do they necessarily need to. When Hwy 400 broke off at Barrie in the 1970s, much of Hwy 11/Yonge St. was still in provincial hands and originally wandered through Barrie to emerge northbound at Penetanguishene Rd. I suppose they could have redesignated 400A to become 11 but there might be internal reasons why they have not.

The public is probably unaware that there are all sorts of 'named' roads in the province that are maintained by the province and have 4-digit administrative numbers.
Waiting on that highway 411 designation.
 
How about people stay off the highways?

Paywall free: https://archive.is/ZPdrv

If I walk onto a train track, airport runway or highway I can’t be surprised when I’m run over.
Not when it is reasonably possible to avoid hitting you, but, from what I saw on the video link, the driver appears to deliberately endanger them (although has not yet been charged with anything according to the link). If you were visible on a runway, I doubt a pilot would be justified in flying their aircraft into you.

Rights may be colliding in that video, but the remedy isn't a grille.
 
Not when it is reasonably possible to avoid hitting you, but, from what I saw on the video link, the driver appears to deliberately endanger them (although has not yet been charged with anything according to the link). If you were visible on a runway, I doubt a pilot would be justified in flying their aircraft into you.

Rights may be colliding in that video, but the remedy isn't a grille.
Screw around and find out….

Also I don’t know what is more idiotic, refusing to talk to police or receiving medical attention
 
Screw around and find out….

Also I don’t know what is more idiotic, refusing to talk to police or receiving medical attention
My comment was more in response to the "if I walk onto a train track, airport runway or highway I can’t be surprised when I’m run over" statement.

Refusing medical intervention or talking to the police are everyone's rights and we should be surprised when certain elements of society exercise them more strongly than others.
 

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