2323
New Member
Highway 26 really could use some upgrades in general. Even if it's not a freeway, a bypass of Stayner would be nice.
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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion
- Thread starter Haljackey
- Start date
lenaitch
Senior Member
I think the best you can expect in the near/mid term are capacity and flow improvements to County Rds. 7 and 96, some of which is already happening. The MTO Corridor Management map doesn't show any zoning restrictions surrounding Stayner that would suggest a planned new right of way,other that the usual corridor controls.
ARG1
Senior Member
At the very least it needs more passing lanes.
Westey
New Member
I thought the buffer was 1.5m.
I have also seen the left lane on multi-lane freeways (i.e. cars only) with 3.5m lanes. Could truck be restricted to the 3 right lanes on a 5 lanes facility?
Haljackey
Active Member
Seems relatively easy to do too. I think all the overpasses can accommodate an extra lane, although the flyover for 403 WB at the 407 would lose its shoulder without a rebuild.
Building the missing ramps at QEW/403 may also be part of it
innsertnamehere
Superstar
MTO did the EA for this about a decade ago, it's still on Oakville's website here:
It's basically extending the HOVs from Trafalgar through to Winston Churchhill, building the missing ramps for QEW>403, and widening the 403 from 2/3 lanes to 3/4 lanes. When MTO rebuilt the 403/QEW interchange a few years ago they did it to protect for the project.
Given the growth that's happening in North Oakville there, I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the next widenings funded. I suspect MTO may defer the missing ramps though.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
Not sure I've seen this rendering of the Garden City Skyway twinning before:
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Dreambig1
New Member
I am surprised no one posted anything regarding yesterday's announcement from Ford about the plans for Niagara Falls and the area. I think way more investment in the highways throughout the Niagara region should take place. So many projects have been sitting on a shelf somewhere, collecting dust for some time now. The widening of the QEW throughout Niagara Falls, extension of the 406 to Port Colborne, and twinning of the Peace Bridge are 3 examples. I have always been surprised by the current state of the 420 and have been wondering why it was never extended as a freeway to Falls Ave/Rainbow Bridge. I know several homes would need to be expropriated for this, including properties around Stanley Ave, to what I would presume would be an interchange. Where the 420 meets Falls Ave, I'd like to see it become a roundabout. Palmer Ave, Victoria Ave, and Ontario Ave should be torn down and replaced with the Palmer Ave interchange ramps being reconfigured. One of the 2 other overpasses may just need to be torn down and not even replaced, and the Macdonald Ave street should be cut off and converted to a cul-de-sac on each side of the highway.
lenaitch
Senior Member
The announcement is being discussed on at least two other threads.
Dreambig1
New Member
My apologies, I did not see that.
ShonTron
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As for Highway 420, it’s a relic of the old QEW that was built as a multilane highway but not to a freeway standard; it only became the 420 rather than a branch of the upgraded QEW years later. It was never designed to be a freeway right to the bridge, and since it doesn’t have crossborder truck traffic or a freeway on the NY side, there’s no need for it.
The land set aside for western extension of the 420 towards Highway 58 in Thorold was recently sold off for development. So that’s not going to happen. It will remain a stub.
The land set aside for western extension of the 420 towards Highway 58 in Thorold was recently sold off for development. So that’s not going to happen. It will remain a stub.
Dreambig1
New Member
I still hope one day the MTO will upgrade the 420 to a full freeway standard. The Falls is a busy place. I've been on the 420 many times. The highway is extremely busy even without a lot of trucks and a freeway-to-freeway connection via the Rainbow Bridge to the states. Ontario has many "stub" or short freeways, Highway 174 in the Ottawa area, the 409, 405 come to mind.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
MTO doesn't even own the 420 east of Stanley Avenue. It's a regional road. Not going to happen and completely unecessary.
And honestly, same with the Peace Bridge. The issue there isn't the number of lanes on the bridge, its the size of the customs plazas - the US has bought up a bunch of land in Buffalo to build a larger customs plaza, they just need to get on it. The Canadian one is already decently large - 15 passenger processing booths and 5 commercial booths, for 20 stalls total. The new Gordie Howe has 24 booths total, 12 passenger and 12 truck, though I believe the truck booths are flexible to be converted to passenger if needed. The US side needs more booths than Canadian processing as processing takes longer for the US than Canadian agents, and it has only 12 passenger booths which is why you get such large backups. The US side of Gordie Howe will have 21 passenger processing booths and 14 commercial booths (35 total!) for comparison, and with lower passenger volumes than the Peace Bridge (though substantially higher commercial volumes).
Border crossing volumes are also on a fairly consistent decline too so it's not really a priority. And the issue is on the US side too so pretty much entirely out of our control.
MTO has land reserved for the 406 extension to run on the west side of the Welland Canal south to Highway 58 - but not south of that. They have no real plans to build this any time soon either from my understanding.
They are also provisionally planning a new freeway corridor from the 406 east to the QEW somewhere around the Highway 58 corridor, but again, no real plans any time soon as far as I know.
The focus in Niagara for the next decade will be widening the QEW to 8 lanes from Stoney Creek to the 406, twinning the Garden City Skyway, and extending the 6-lanes of the QEW south to the 420. Nothing else is really needed in the area right now.
And honestly, same with the Peace Bridge. The issue there isn't the number of lanes on the bridge, its the size of the customs plazas - the US has bought up a bunch of land in Buffalo to build a larger customs plaza, they just need to get on it. The Canadian one is already decently large - 15 passenger processing booths and 5 commercial booths, for 20 stalls total. The new Gordie Howe has 24 booths total, 12 passenger and 12 truck, though I believe the truck booths are flexible to be converted to passenger if needed. The US side needs more booths than Canadian processing as processing takes longer for the US than Canadian agents, and it has only 12 passenger booths which is why you get such large backups. The US side of Gordie Howe will have 21 passenger processing booths and 14 commercial booths (35 total!) for comparison, and with lower passenger volumes than the Peace Bridge (though substantially higher commercial volumes).
Border crossing volumes are also on a fairly consistent decline too so it's not really a priority. And the issue is on the US side too so pretty much entirely out of our control.
MTO has land reserved for the 406 extension to run on the west side of the Welland Canal south to Highway 58 - but not south of that. They have no real plans to build this any time soon either from my understanding.
They are also provisionally planning a new freeway corridor from the 406 east to the QEW somewhere around the Highway 58 corridor, but again, no real plans any time soon as far as I know.
The focus in Niagara for the next decade will be widening the QEW to 8 lanes from Stoney Creek to the 406, twinning the Garden City Skyway, and extending the 6-lanes of the QEW south to the 420. Nothing else is really needed in the area right now.
Dreambig1
New Member
It would still be nice to see all that I mentioned happen one day. But I probably will have to agree that most of this will not take place anytime soon. One other thing I shoulda have mentioned was if they ever plan on widening Highway 3 into Port Colborne, the 2 lanes in each direction suddenly end at Killaly St E.
narduch
Senior Member
One more lane bro.