AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From the Globe:
Planning for new roads with a green blueprint
At the outset of a huge Golden Horseshoe road network surge, the province is assessing environmental impact like never before
JAMES RUSK
From Monday's Globe and Mail
July 14, 2008 at 4:41 AM EDT
The Ontario government is studying a massive expansion of the transportation network in the Golden Horseshoe that, when built over the next 20 years, will shape economic development in Canada's most populous area.
But unlike planning for earlier generations of four-lane highways, which took the primacy of road construction for granted, the province is trying to fit the new transportation corridors into an environmentally sensitive blueprint that protects the Niagara Escarpment, the Oak Ridge Moraine and the Greenbelt.
Now, before a road is built, the Ministry of Transportation carries out a detailed review of the environmental conditions in the area, transportation needs and alternative solutions, such as public transit for people and rail for goods or widening existing roads. A new highway is recommended only as the last solution.
In the western portion of the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the ministry is studying a corridor across the Niagara Peninsula, an east-west corridor from Guelph to Vaughan, and a northern extension of Highway 427. It will soon launch a study of a Brantford-Cambridge link between Highways 401 and 403.
Two other new highways also fit into these plans - the northern extension of Highway 410, a section of which is now under construction in the north edge of Brampton, and a new four-lane highway from Guelph to Kitchener, which is in the final design stage.
While the road network to the north and east of Toronto is also being expanded, the area west of the city is where the most extensive expansion of the transportation network will be needed over the next 20 to 30 years, according to public documents relating to the studies and interviews with ministry officials.
The ministry has assembled figures that demonstrate how much population and job growth have pushed up - and will continue to push up - traffic in the region.
For instance, the number of vehicles crossing the Burlington Skyway is growing at about 5 per cent a year, and the annual average daily volume of 88,300 vehicles crossing it in 1990 rose to 138,500 in 2006.
It will take eight to 10 years to complete the environmental assessments and only when they are approved by the Environment Ministry will new highway construction start.
Since the studies are in their early stages, the ministry officials say they cannot answer any of the questions that are front of mind with the public: Where exactly will roads go, what will they cost and will they be toll highways?
Two more pressing issues have emerged in the public consultations the ministry has conducted.
One is time. While the ministry's assessment process meets the standard of scrutiny to which massive new public projects are subjected, apart from the Highway 427 extension, it is unlikely that Ontarians will see cars driving on new roads until late in the next decade or the early 2020s.
With traffic already at a standstill, some of the drivers who attended the public consultations have asked why it takes so long to get a new road built, the officials said.
The other vital issue is municipal planning. Since development will continue while the province is planning the new corridors, local governments have been asking the ministry how they can approve new development in a way that will not impinge on what might turn out to be land needed by the province for a new highway.
The province had to step in this spring to tell Peel Region that it would be premature to consider an application to expand the boundary of the village of Bolton, as the lands were on a possible route for a new east-west road.
***
A golden transportation grid for the Horseshoe?
The Ontario government is looking 20 years into the future. It is planning now for more vehicles on the road, more highways and more public transit, and looking for ways to minimize environmental impact. Below are the four transportation corridors being studied.
EAST-WEST GTA CORRIDOR: The population and job growth in this area is projected at just over 80 per cent in the next 30 years.
HIGHWAY 427: The number of truck movements at the Canadian Pacific Railway's inter-modal freight yard in Vaughan is expected to more than double from about 430,000 a year to 900,000 a year over the next 15 years.
BRANTFORD-CAMBRIDGE EXPRESSWAY: Currently, 15,000 vehicles a day use the existing two-lane Highway 24 to go between the two cities.
NIAGARA-GTA CORRIDOR: 20,000 trucks travel the QEW through Stoney Creek on an average workday.
***
Extending highways
HIGHWAY 427
In the most advanced of the four studies, the Ministry of Transportation has selected a route for the seven-kilometre extension of Highway 427 from its current terminus at old Highway Seven north to Major Mackenzie Drive in Vaughan.
Preliminary design work on the road is under way, the final environmental assessment will be submitted to the province next fall and the Environment Ministry is expected to complete its consideration of the report in 2010.
The new road would not likely be completed until some time between 2013 and 2015.
The limited-access highway will provide a link to Canadian Pacific Railway's freight yard in Vaughan.The road also could be extended north in the future and could be linked with the proposed east-west GTA corridor.
NIAGARA GTA CORRIDOR
Plans to twin the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie and traffic already push the capacity of the Queen Elizabeth Way to its limit.
Consequently, the province is studying a transportation corridor across the Niagara Peninsula above the Niagara Escarpment that will link into the GTA highway system west of Hamilton.
Two studies, one of environmental factors and the other of transportation and socio-economic factors affecting the corridor, have been finished.
By the end of next year, the ministry hopes to have a final assessment of transportation needs in the corridor and to have prepared a recommended strategy to meet them. It will then study alternate routes for a new highway and pick one early in the next decade.
EAST-WEST GTA CORRIDOR
The environmental assessment of a transportation corridor from Vaughan to Guelph, north of Highway 401, is not as far advanced as the Niagara GTA project. Base studies of environmental conditions and transportation considerations are not expected until late this year.
But traffic congestion in the area is rising, both on Highway 401 and secondary roads such as Highway 7 between Guelph and Georgetown. Population and job growth along the corridor is projected at more than 80 per cent in the next 30 years.
With Mississauga and Oakville becoming built out, development pressure in the area west of Toronto is shifting from south of Highway 401 to the north, such as the northwest part of Brampton and the south end of Caledon.
An east-west highway could link the Guelph-Kitchener expressway the province is building to the northern extension of Highway 427 and Highway 400.
BRANTFORD-CAMBRIDGE
EXPRESSWAY
The ministry is preparing draft terms of reference for a study of a four-lane highway linking Highway 403 at Brantford with Highway 401 west of Cambridge.
Currently, 15,000 vehicles a day use the existing two-lane Highway 24 between the two cities, and a limited-access, north-south road would improve the linkage in the rapidly-growing four-city group of Brantford, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph.
James Rusk
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080714.wroads14/BNStory/National/Ontario/
AoD
Planning for new roads with a green blueprint
At the outset of a huge Golden Horseshoe road network surge, the province is assessing environmental impact like never before
JAMES RUSK
From Monday's Globe and Mail
July 14, 2008 at 4:41 AM EDT
The Ontario government is studying a massive expansion of the transportation network in the Golden Horseshoe that, when built over the next 20 years, will shape economic development in Canada's most populous area.
But unlike planning for earlier generations of four-lane highways, which took the primacy of road construction for granted, the province is trying to fit the new transportation corridors into an environmentally sensitive blueprint that protects the Niagara Escarpment, the Oak Ridge Moraine and the Greenbelt.
Now, before a road is built, the Ministry of Transportation carries out a detailed review of the environmental conditions in the area, transportation needs and alternative solutions, such as public transit for people and rail for goods or widening existing roads. A new highway is recommended only as the last solution.
In the western portion of the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the ministry is studying a corridor across the Niagara Peninsula, an east-west corridor from Guelph to Vaughan, and a northern extension of Highway 427. It will soon launch a study of a Brantford-Cambridge link between Highways 401 and 403.
Two other new highways also fit into these plans - the northern extension of Highway 410, a section of which is now under construction in the north edge of Brampton, and a new four-lane highway from Guelph to Kitchener, which is in the final design stage.
While the road network to the north and east of Toronto is also being expanded, the area west of the city is where the most extensive expansion of the transportation network will be needed over the next 20 to 30 years, according to public documents relating to the studies and interviews with ministry officials.
The ministry has assembled figures that demonstrate how much population and job growth have pushed up - and will continue to push up - traffic in the region.
For instance, the number of vehicles crossing the Burlington Skyway is growing at about 5 per cent a year, and the annual average daily volume of 88,300 vehicles crossing it in 1990 rose to 138,500 in 2006.
It will take eight to 10 years to complete the environmental assessments and only when they are approved by the Environment Ministry will new highway construction start.
Since the studies are in their early stages, the ministry officials say they cannot answer any of the questions that are front of mind with the public: Where exactly will roads go, what will they cost and will they be toll highways?
Two more pressing issues have emerged in the public consultations the ministry has conducted.
One is time. While the ministry's assessment process meets the standard of scrutiny to which massive new public projects are subjected, apart from the Highway 427 extension, it is unlikely that Ontarians will see cars driving on new roads until late in the next decade or the early 2020s.
With traffic already at a standstill, some of the drivers who attended the public consultations have asked why it takes so long to get a new road built, the officials said.
The other vital issue is municipal planning. Since development will continue while the province is planning the new corridors, local governments have been asking the ministry how they can approve new development in a way that will not impinge on what might turn out to be land needed by the province for a new highway.
The province had to step in this spring to tell Peel Region that it would be premature to consider an application to expand the boundary of the village of Bolton, as the lands were on a possible route for a new east-west road.
***
A golden transportation grid for the Horseshoe?
The Ontario government is looking 20 years into the future. It is planning now for more vehicles on the road, more highways and more public transit, and looking for ways to minimize environmental impact. Below are the four transportation corridors being studied.
EAST-WEST GTA CORRIDOR: The population and job growth in this area is projected at just over 80 per cent in the next 30 years.
HIGHWAY 427: The number of truck movements at the Canadian Pacific Railway's inter-modal freight yard in Vaughan is expected to more than double from about 430,000 a year to 900,000 a year over the next 15 years.
BRANTFORD-CAMBRIDGE EXPRESSWAY: Currently, 15,000 vehicles a day use the existing two-lane Highway 24 to go between the two cities.
NIAGARA-GTA CORRIDOR: 20,000 trucks travel the QEW through Stoney Creek on an average workday.
***
Extending highways
HIGHWAY 427
In the most advanced of the four studies, the Ministry of Transportation has selected a route for the seven-kilometre extension of Highway 427 from its current terminus at old Highway Seven north to Major Mackenzie Drive in Vaughan.
Preliminary design work on the road is under way, the final environmental assessment will be submitted to the province next fall and the Environment Ministry is expected to complete its consideration of the report in 2010.
The new road would not likely be completed until some time between 2013 and 2015.
The limited-access highway will provide a link to Canadian Pacific Railway's freight yard in Vaughan.The road also could be extended north in the future and could be linked with the proposed east-west GTA corridor.
NIAGARA GTA CORRIDOR
Plans to twin the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie and traffic already push the capacity of the Queen Elizabeth Way to its limit.
Consequently, the province is studying a transportation corridor across the Niagara Peninsula above the Niagara Escarpment that will link into the GTA highway system west of Hamilton.
Two studies, one of environmental factors and the other of transportation and socio-economic factors affecting the corridor, have been finished.
By the end of next year, the ministry hopes to have a final assessment of transportation needs in the corridor and to have prepared a recommended strategy to meet them. It will then study alternate routes for a new highway and pick one early in the next decade.
EAST-WEST GTA CORRIDOR
The environmental assessment of a transportation corridor from Vaughan to Guelph, north of Highway 401, is not as far advanced as the Niagara GTA project. Base studies of environmental conditions and transportation considerations are not expected until late this year.
But traffic congestion in the area is rising, both on Highway 401 and secondary roads such as Highway 7 between Guelph and Georgetown. Population and job growth along the corridor is projected at more than 80 per cent in the next 30 years.
With Mississauga and Oakville becoming built out, development pressure in the area west of Toronto is shifting from south of Highway 401 to the north, such as the northwest part of Brampton and the south end of Caledon.
An east-west highway could link the Guelph-Kitchener expressway the province is building to the northern extension of Highway 427 and Highway 400.
BRANTFORD-CAMBRIDGE
EXPRESSWAY
The ministry is preparing draft terms of reference for a study of a four-lane highway linking Highway 403 at Brantford with Highway 401 west of Cambridge.
Currently, 15,000 vehicles a day use the existing two-lane Highway 24 between the two cities, and a limited-access, north-south road would improve the linkage in the rapidly-growing four-city group of Brantford, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph.
James Rusk
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080714.wroads14/BNStory/National/Ontario/
AoD
