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Highway 401 carpool lanes proposed
CAMBRIDGE — Carpool lanes are proposed down the middle of Highway 401 as part of a suggested 10-lane widening of the freeway eastward from Hespeler Road to Halton Region.
The idea was an option at a 2009 public information session that was part of an ongoing Ontario Ministry of Transportation planning process to upgrade the six-lane highway from Cambridge eastward.
Now, the “preferred option†to upgrade the 401 includes “provisions for high occupancy vehicle — HOV — lanes, to address long-term needs,†ministry spokesperson Bob Nichols said.
The highway within a highway proposal goes out for public comment this week at meetings in Cambridge and Puslinch Township.
One inner lane in each direction would be marked with diamonds on the asphalt and overhead signs saying only vehicles carrying two or more people are permitted. Police would enforce the rule.
The other four lanes of traffic in each direction would be used by trucks and other as it is now.
The Hespeler-Halton project is one of several planning studies complete or underway to upgrade Highways 8 and 401 from south Kitchener, through Cambridge and Puslinch Township to Mississauga.
There’s no firm timeline to start any of the work.
Plans have been approved — but not funded — to upgrade the interchange at Highways 8 and 401 by adding a westbound ramp. Currently, southbound traffic on Highway 8 must exit at King Street to enter Highway 401 westbound toward Woodstock.
Detailed design work is underway for widening Highway 401 between Highway 8 and Hespeler Road, said Nichols, of the Transport Ministry.
The work is proposed in two phases, possibly starting by 2015. No cost estimates are available.
The first phase includes the rehabilitation of the Highway 8 to Highway 401 “flyover†ramp, and replacement of the Fountain Street and Speedsville Road bridges over the 401. The second phase includes widening Highway 401.
That’s similar to what’s needed for the next block of the 401 heading eastward from Hespeler Road to Halton Region.
That work would include:
• Reconstruction and modification of the Hespeler Road, Franklin Boulevard, Townline Road, Hanlon Expressway and Brock Road interchanges;
• Replacement of 11 bridges;
• Expansion of two carpool lots.
The Transport Ministry is talking to Waterloo Region officials about adding express-bus bypass lanes on the 401 between Kitchener and Cambridge. Provincial officials are also talking with the City of Cambridge about a pedestrian bridge spanning the 401 near Franklin Boulevard.
Ministry traffic projections say Highway 401 between Hespeler Road and Highway 6 needs eight lanes by 2016 and 10 by 2031.
Between Highway 6 and the Halton boundary, eight lanes are needed by 2016 and perhaps 12 lanes by 2031. (Another study is underway looking at 401 traffic through Halton Region.)
Highway 401 widening
Plans to widen Highway 401 between Hespeler Road and the Halton Region boundary are on public display this week.
• Tuesday, at the Hespeler Memorial Arena, 640 Ellis Rd. W., Cambridge.
• Thursday, at the Puslinch Community Centre, 29 Brock Rd. S., Aberfoyle.
Sessions run from 4 to 8 p.m.
Staff presentations at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
kswayze@therecord.com
Link
Highway 401 widening through and east of Cambridge overdue, motorists say
CAMBRIDGE — John Miller can see how busy Highway 401 is outside his house in Puslinch Township just east of Cambridge.
“This area has grown, but the highway hasn’t,†he said.
Miller liked plans for a 10-lane highway he saw Tuesday at the Hespeler Memorial Arena, during a public information session. “It has to be done, no question.â€
What’s a bigger concern for him, however, are stalled plans to build a new Highway 6 south from Highway 401 south towards Hamilton. Today’s four-lane, undivided Highway 6 is overwhelmed by traffic most of time, forcing people to short-cut down country roads like his.
Between Highway 6 North and Highway 6 South, Highway 401 is proposed to be 12 lanes wide. There, it’s a double highway moving traffic north-south and east west through the Highway 6 dogleg.
Included is a roundabout south of the 401, blend traffic between the old Highway 6 route and the new expressway route heading south to Freelton.
No cost estimates or proposed construction timing was given for any of the projects project. The final Hespeler-Halton plan is expected to go for approval next summer. Then it has to get funding.
Plans are on display again Thursday at the Puslinch Community Centre, 29 Brock Rd. S., Aberfoyle, 4 to 8 p.m.
The preferred option on display widens six-lane Highway 401 between Hespeler Road in Cambridge and the Halton Region boundary to include “high-occupancy vehicle lanes†down the middle. They’re for use only by cars with two or more people, or buses.
The Hespeler-Halton proposal plugs into already approved plans to widen the Highway 401 between Highway 8 and Hespeler Road, said Roger Ward, project manager with the Ontario Transportation Ministry. It’s also intended to match up with a study underway between Milton and Mississauga to upgrade the freeway farther east.
To widen the 401 Hespeler to Halton, 11 bridges need to be replaced with longer spans, along with rebuilding the 22-year-old Hespeler Road interchange. The study proposes pedestrian access across and around the highway, paid for by local municipalities.
A display map showed a pedestrian bridge across the 401 just east of Hespeler Road — which perplexed Don Pavey, chair of Cambridge’s cycling committee. A city-provincial study last year recommended a pedestrian-cycling bridge on or near the Franklin overpass. He’s asked for an explanation.
Jim Mercier likes the idea of a pedestrian bridge near Hespeler Road. He works at the Holiday Inn on the north side of the highway. A bridge would give hotel guests an easy way to go to shopping in the power centre of stores just to the south.
He has worked at hotels along Highway 401 for 25 years. Expansion is long overdue, he said.
“It’s been getting worse and worse, so congested. At least once a week it’s bumper to bumper: it’s stopped.â€
Pat Solomon lives in Cambridge just north of the highway. The 401 should have been widened properly years ago, not in torn up over and over again I piecemeal expansions, he said.
And he’s always wondered why mass transit doesn’t follow the route to get people out of cars.
“Why not put high speed rail right down the middle?â€
kswayze@therecord.com
Link
Highway 401 carpool lanes proposed
CAMBRIDGE — Carpool lanes are proposed down the middle of Highway 401 as part of a suggested 10-lane widening of the freeway eastward from Hespeler Road to Halton Region.
The idea was an option at a 2009 public information session that was part of an ongoing Ontario Ministry of Transportation planning process to upgrade the six-lane highway from Cambridge eastward.
Now, the “preferred option†to upgrade the 401 includes “provisions for high occupancy vehicle — HOV — lanes, to address long-term needs,†ministry spokesperson Bob Nichols said.
The highway within a highway proposal goes out for public comment this week at meetings in Cambridge and Puslinch Township.
One inner lane in each direction would be marked with diamonds on the asphalt and overhead signs saying only vehicles carrying two or more people are permitted. Police would enforce the rule.
The other four lanes of traffic in each direction would be used by trucks and other as it is now.
The Hespeler-Halton project is one of several planning studies complete or underway to upgrade Highways 8 and 401 from south Kitchener, through Cambridge and Puslinch Township to Mississauga.
There’s no firm timeline to start any of the work.
Plans have been approved — but not funded — to upgrade the interchange at Highways 8 and 401 by adding a westbound ramp. Currently, southbound traffic on Highway 8 must exit at King Street to enter Highway 401 westbound toward Woodstock.
Detailed design work is underway for widening Highway 401 between Highway 8 and Hespeler Road, said Nichols, of the Transport Ministry.
The work is proposed in two phases, possibly starting by 2015. No cost estimates are available.
The first phase includes the rehabilitation of the Highway 8 to Highway 401 “flyover†ramp, and replacement of the Fountain Street and Speedsville Road bridges over the 401. The second phase includes widening Highway 401.
That’s similar to what’s needed for the next block of the 401 heading eastward from Hespeler Road to Halton Region.
That work would include:
• Reconstruction and modification of the Hespeler Road, Franklin Boulevard, Townline Road, Hanlon Expressway and Brock Road interchanges;
• Replacement of 11 bridges;
• Expansion of two carpool lots.
The Transport Ministry is talking to Waterloo Region officials about adding express-bus bypass lanes on the 401 between Kitchener and Cambridge. Provincial officials are also talking with the City of Cambridge about a pedestrian bridge spanning the 401 near Franklin Boulevard.
Ministry traffic projections say Highway 401 between Hespeler Road and Highway 6 needs eight lanes by 2016 and 10 by 2031.
Between Highway 6 and the Halton boundary, eight lanes are needed by 2016 and perhaps 12 lanes by 2031. (Another study is underway looking at 401 traffic through Halton Region.)
Highway 401 widening
Plans to widen Highway 401 between Hespeler Road and the Halton Region boundary are on public display this week.
• Tuesday, at the Hespeler Memorial Arena, 640 Ellis Rd. W., Cambridge.
• Thursday, at the Puslinch Community Centre, 29 Brock Rd. S., Aberfoyle.
Sessions run from 4 to 8 p.m.
Staff presentations at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
kswayze@therecord.com
Link
Highway 401 widening through and east of Cambridge overdue, motorists say
CAMBRIDGE — John Miller can see how busy Highway 401 is outside his house in Puslinch Township just east of Cambridge.
“This area has grown, but the highway hasn’t,†he said.
Miller liked plans for a 10-lane highway he saw Tuesday at the Hespeler Memorial Arena, during a public information session. “It has to be done, no question.â€
What’s a bigger concern for him, however, are stalled plans to build a new Highway 6 south from Highway 401 south towards Hamilton. Today’s four-lane, undivided Highway 6 is overwhelmed by traffic most of time, forcing people to short-cut down country roads like his.
Between Highway 6 North and Highway 6 South, Highway 401 is proposed to be 12 lanes wide. There, it’s a double highway moving traffic north-south and east west through the Highway 6 dogleg.
Included is a roundabout south of the 401, blend traffic between the old Highway 6 route and the new expressway route heading south to Freelton.
No cost estimates or proposed construction timing was given for any of the projects project. The final Hespeler-Halton plan is expected to go for approval next summer. Then it has to get funding.
Plans are on display again Thursday at the Puslinch Community Centre, 29 Brock Rd. S., Aberfoyle, 4 to 8 p.m.
The preferred option on display widens six-lane Highway 401 between Hespeler Road in Cambridge and the Halton Region boundary to include “high-occupancy vehicle lanes†down the middle. They’re for use only by cars with two or more people, or buses.
The Hespeler-Halton proposal plugs into already approved plans to widen the Highway 401 between Highway 8 and Hespeler Road, said Roger Ward, project manager with the Ontario Transportation Ministry. It’s also intended to match up with a study underway between Milton and Mississauga to upgrade the freeway farther east.
To widen the 401 Hespeler to Halton, 11 bridges need to be replaced with longer spans, along with rebuilding the 22-year-old Hespeler Road interchange. The study proposes pedestrian access across and around the highway, paid for by local municipalities.
A display map showed a pedestrian bridge across the 401 just east of Hespeler Road — which perplexed Don Pavey, chair of Cambridge’s cycling committee. A city-provincial study last year recommended a pedestrian-cycling bridge on or near the Franklin overpass. He’s asked for an explanation.
Jim Mercier likes the idea of a pedestrian bridge near Hespeler Road. He works at the Holiday Inn on the north side of the highway. A bridge would give hotel guests an easy way to go to shopping in the power centre of stores just to the south.
He has worked at hotels along Highway 401 for 25 years. Expansion is long overdue, he said.
“It’s been getting worse and worse, so congested. At least once a week it’s bumper to bumper: it’s stopped.â€
Pat Solomon lives in Cambridge just north of the highway. The 401 should have been widened properly years ago, not in torn up over and over again I piecemeal expansions, he said.
And he’s always wondered why mass transit doesn’t follow the route to get people out of cars.
“Why not put high speed rail right down the middle?â€
kswayze@therecord.com
Link
