Dump truck free time on DVP and QEW?

[Admiral Beez]

I take the DVP north from Dundas to Hwy 401 each weekday morning. Over the last two years and especially recently the number of slow, lumbering dump trucks struggling to make it up the hills on the DVP have greatly increased. They can't keep up with traffic, causing long lines of otherwise well moving traffic and leading to idiot car drivers acting aggressively, and the trucks often breakdown or stop on the shoulder causing other blockages. Exact same thing is happening on the Gardiner.

Of course the trucks are needed for the construction of all the condos and Pam Am Games build. However, I suggest the dump trucks be kept off the North-bound (uphill) DVP and Gardiner from 7am to 9am. The rest of the day they can drive on these roads all they want.

 

[UD2]

Agree. Rush hour roads should be truck free. Many other countries implement this.

 

[muller877]

Agree. Rush hour roads should be truck free. Many other countries implement this.

The problem is that we restrict loud noise and construction (7am to 7pm). If you then prohibit movements at rush hour (7am-9:30am, 4:30-6:30) then we could only pour concrete, remove dirt and ship/receive for 6 hours a day. It would make everything more expensive and construction of buildings even slower.

That is unless you lift the restrictions from early AM or late PM noise.

Other cities have it where there is a lot less construction and industry in the downtown core.

 

[pstogios]

The problem is that we restrict loud noise and construction (7am to 7pm). If you then prohibit movements at rush hour (7am-9:30am, 4:30-6:30) then we could only pour concrete, remove dirt and ship/receive for 6 hours a day. It would make everything more expensive and construction of buildings even slower.

That is unless you lift the restrictions from early AM or late PM noise.

Other cities have it where there is a lot less construction and industry in the downtown core.

What is more important - making lives easier for the millions of people that live and work in the city through sensible restrictions on noise and truck movements, OR, making lives earlier for the private construction industry (which has already been incredibly profitable in this city for decades)?

I would argue the former, every second of every day.

 

[Neutrino]

You would think that slower and more expensive construction negatively impacts people.

 

[lenaitch]

What is more important - making lives easier for the millions of people that live and work in the city through sensible restrictions on noise and truck movements, OR, making lives earlier for the private construction industry (which has already been incredibly profitable in this city for decades)?

I would argue the former, every second of every day.

That private construction industry is building higher density housing and public transit projects all across the GTA. It can be well argued that making either set of projects both more expensive and longer will have a negative public impact. Many of the dump trucks are either small fleet or owner/operator - if they can only make a living for a few hours a day, those hours are going to get more expensive.

 

[pstogios]

That private construction industry is building higher density housing and public transit projects all across the GTA. It can be well argued that making either set of projects both more expensive and longer will have a negative public impact. Many of the dump trucks are either small fleet or owner/operator - if they can only make a living for a few hours a day, those hours are going to get more expensive.

By this logic, the construction industry should have free reign to produce as much noise and disruption it wants, free from any regulation.

Clearly this is a fallacy. They are regulated and must continue to be regulated. People are sick and tired of the endless disruptions caused by construction in this city that has been going on for decades. It's time to fight back.

 

[ShonTron]

By this logic, the construction industry should have free reign to produce as much noise and disruption it wants, free from any regulation.

Clearly this is a fallacy. They are regulated and must continue to be regulated. People are sick and tired of the endless disruptions caused by construction in this city that has been going on for decades. It's time to fight back.

Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. But I think we have to put up with construction in Toronto anyway.

 

[pstogios]

Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. But I think we have to put up with construction in Toronto anyway.

Lol.

Yes unfortunately we have to continue to put up with construction, it really is endless.

In the meantime, we can impose some reasonable additional restrictions to ease the impact this is having on the millions of residents and workers in this city.

 

[44 North]

Dumptrucks are a gripe of mine, more for the damage they do to city streets. They're like glaciers, mushing and warping the pavement down to the lithosphere. Scouring and gouging the surface creating potholes, plucking then haphazardly depositing pieces of pavement like an eratic boulder. One spills its load then we got a moraine. Dump trucks are a necessary evil, but a scourge nonetheless. This year is the the worse I've experienced for crumbly roads.

Which leads me to wonder, does anyone think we would be better off with concrete roads instead of asphalt? Perhaps the plasticity of asphalt is better for the temperature extremes we experience, but surely it has trouble handling the weight of constant dumptrucks. Would the rigidity of an all-concrete pavement be more resilient?

 

[UD2]

The issue here is we allow construction companies to take too long to build.

Building permits in the city should accompany a min number of crew on site at all time. And we should implement a maximum construction period before companies need to face fines.

Also construction hours should fill 100% of non noise restricted time slot. And that time slow should be 7AM to 8:30PM. Which means we should see crews on site 13.5 hours a day.

If staffing is an issue, then we should limit the max number of building permits approved at one time. To ensure that there are enough crew to meet the required construction speed.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Agree. Rush hour roads should be truck free. Many other countries implement this.

It's a spambot that started this thread - original post back from 2012: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/dump-truck-free-time-on-dvp-and-gew.19349/

MoD

 

[drum118]

I guess people who don't want to see new transit line and no more building are willing to pay 5-15 times more in taxes than they have to do today if not more. By having more people and work place helps to keep everyone taxes lower.

Not only that, they are willing to allow infrastructure fall apart as well buildings, since they are not to be repair or replace in the first Place??

Construction is a fact of life and we will be dealing with it one way or another all our lives and need to deal with it as best as we can.

The city had an option to to have better grades on the DV from day one, but chose the cheap option to what we have today.

You can't say all truck traffic can't be on X road between X-X, as it will take longer to get the work done and require more trucks to do the same amount of work today at a higher cost.

Time for people to move to the countryside if they are not happy with city life or move to a small town or city that doesn't see what we see daily.

 

[lenaitch]

By this logic, the construction industry should have free reign to produce as much noise and disruption it wants, free from any regulation.
Clearly this is a fallacy. They are regulated and must continue to be regulated. People are sick and tired of the endless disruptions caused by construction in this city that has been going on for decades. It's time to fight back.

Hmmm, making a point of the downsides of the suggested restrictions being extended to free reign. Reductio ad adsurdum.

 

[lenaitch]

The issue here is we allow construction companies to take too long to build.

Building permits in the city should accompany a min number of crew on site at all time. And we should implement a maximum construction period before companies need to face fines.

Also construction hours should fill 100% of non noise restricted time slot. And that time slow should be 7AM to 8:30PM. Which means we should see crews on site 13.5 hours a day.

If staffing is an issue, then we should limit the max number of building permits approved at one time. To ensure that there are enough crew to meet the required construction speed.

Someone apparently hasn't been a general contractor managing a slew of sub-trades. So a dig encounters unknown infrastructure/artifacts, a pour doesn't go as planned or the wind is too high for safe hoisting. It would be interesting to see how many companies would sign on to those terms. You would need a separate on-site trailer just for the lawyers.