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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

his is a priority project and now more than ever as the province is going to have to 8 lane the 401 from London to Woodstock in the enar future. As I stated earlier, widened a 4 lane freeway to 6 lanes is relatively easy as overpasses can be widened fairly easily but this is not the case for an 8 lane freeway. That will require a reconstruction of every overpass and bridge from London to Woodstock.............a VERY expensive and time consuming endeveor. This money would be far, far better spent on a 402/403 Northern connector.
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Sorry, I meant to say London has the wore traffic of any comparable size city in the country and the worse in the country save Vancouver and Winnipeg as they also do not have any urban freeways.
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My brain hurts!
 
ssiguy2 said:
Anyway, London's need for a Northern 402/403 connection is dire. The only other highway that I could see taking priority would be the Kitchener/Guelph freeway connection.
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I don't understand the need for a full freeway between Kitchener and Guelph either. Sections of it; such as the new bridge over the Grand River, perhaps, but there is no reason that the existing Highway 7 cannot be widened from 2 to 4 lanes and money be put elsewhere, such as providing a viable service on that parallel rail corridor.
 
ssiguy2 said:
Sorry, I meant to say London has the wore traffic of any comparable size city in the country and the worse in the country save Vancouver and Winnipeg as they also do not have any urban freeways. In non-rush hour times only those 2 cities are harder to get around than London.
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How many urban freeways does London, UK have? Just wondering.
 
On a bit of a different note, here's three pictures from the interchange that's going in on the Hanlon (Highway 6) in Guelph at Laird Road. The first is a southbound picture, the second two are northbound. It's supposed to be completed by this fall.
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ShonTron said:
The Highway 6 upgrade flies under the radar. Once Laird Road is done, I expect Stone Road to follow, then the grade separation of College Avenue and Kortright Road.
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I would probably agree, but the question is how long until those happen? The only reason Laird is getting done is because of the development of the Hanlon Business Park and the fact that the city contributed $16 million to the project. I would guess those other interchanges are still quite a few years away, unless they are somehow tied into the new highway 7 project, which will be connected to the Hanlon.
 
ShonTron said:
The Highway 6 upgrade flies under the radar. Once Laird Road is done, I expect Stone Road to follow, then the grade separation of College Avenue and Kortright Road.
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At one a decade, they should be finished the highway sometime around 2070.
 
dunkalunk said:
I don't understand the need for a full freeway between Kitchener and Guelph either. Sections of it; such as the new bridge over the Grand River, perhaps, but there is no reason that the existing Highway 7 cannot be widened from 2 to 4 lanes and money be put elsewhere, such as providing a viable service on that parallel rail corridor.
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K/W is growing like a weed and Waterloo Region is expected to swell massively once Greater Toronto's growth reaches the greenbelt. A Highway 7 freeway to Guelph is needed and it will become the main feeder into the Halton-Peel freeway if I'm not mistaken.


A freeway north of London is not going to happen. If this was built, the section of the 402 south/west of the city will be barely used. Why it was built like this is beyond me, and it will forever screw up London's traffic system.

Maybe one day a Highway 7 freeway bypass will stretch from north of London and Stratford to the 7/8.


The overpasses on the 401 between the 402 and 403 are nearing the end of their lifespan. Their replacements are being designed to accommodate a 8-lane 401 (and 10 lanes in the London area).
 
Haljackey said:
K/W is growing like a weed and Waterloo Region is expected to swell massively once Greater Toronto's growth reaches the greenbelt. A Highway 7 freeway to Guelph is needed and it will become the main feeder into the Halton-Peel freeway if I'm not mistaken.
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Waterloo Region has a strict countryside line for development. The construction of a limited access highway will encourage sprawl outside of it. The province is currently being very secretive about the costs of this project citing the project currently being in the tendering process as a reason.

Since the EA process began for this project began 20 years ago and was completed in 2007, there has been a new bridge crossing the Grand River that has since been constructed as well as the introduction of GO transit to the region and the completion of the Region of Waterloo's official plan which calls for a strict countryside line and urban growth boundary.

I have a feeling that the funding for the highway was only approved by McGuinty's outgoing government as a bid to attempt to buy votes in the K-W by-election. I have my doubts of whether or not the fully proposed solution is required when there are less expensive and intrusive alternatives.
 
And the most fustrating part of it is that Highway 7 is congested and only two lanes as the province pushes the freeway alternative. And there's still no useful transit service betwen Guelph and Kitchener and Cambridge.
 
dunkalunk said:
Waterloo Region has a strict countryside line for development. ... I have a feeling that the funding for the highway was only approved by McGuinty's outgoing government as a bid to attempt to buy votes in the K-W by-election. I have my doubts of whether or not the fully proposed solution is required when there are less expensive and intrusive alternatives.
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Doesn't Region of Waterloo and City of Kitchener keep asking the provincial government to build this highway though? You talk like building it is a provincial conspiracy being pushed on the region.
 
The Region of Waterloo and City of Kitchener have also been asking the provincial government to improve intercity rail as bus service as well. It is the nature of municipal governments to lobby the province for support for improved infrastructure.

I am not trying to drum up a conspiracy, the main point that I am trying to get across is that a lot has changed since the study has begun and has been completed and the aims of the project when the EA began and conclusions reached 6 years ago are based on outdated ideas concerning transportation and urban form. It is also not reassuring that the study which justifies the highway and the final cost are currently inaccessible.
 
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