Mid-Peninsula Highway/Niagara-GTA Corridor

[BurlOak]

It is definitely an interesting idea, and would have a significantly smaller environmental impact than increasing the ROW width and making a larger cut.

I'm not really a big fan of making an E-W highway that starts at Highway 407 and continues further west. Dumping passenger flow onto a private tolled highway seems like a bad idea to me (W4 on the map). Unless of course they create a separate highway beside it up to the 403-407 interchange, and sign that highway as 403.

And it's kind of strange to me that the Highway 6 upgrades are so far down the list. Seems to me that a 400-series link between the 401 and 403 somewhere around the 6 corridor should be one of the top priorities in the west GTHA.

They were happy to dump people onto the 407 on the East end, so I do not see any reason why they would not do likewise in the West. 403 through Hamilton is essentially a parallel route to option W4 so people do have an option. 407 would be a more or less continuous highway from Newcastle to West Hamilton - but the agreements may be different on the East, West and Central portions.

As I understand it, highway 6 will remain a RIRO highway (similar to hwy 11 through Barrie) with the freeway only occuring at the south end to Dundas (Highway 5) and bypassing Morriston to the 401. I do not think the options are either or. Maybe they will choose the Westmost alignment from Kitchener to Hamilton West (W1) and the extension of highway 407 to West Hamilton (W4). I think the environment is more sensitive along the W2 and W3 routes.

 

[gweed123]

They were happy to dump people onto the 407 on the East end, so I do not see any reason why they would not do likewise in the West. 403 through Hamilton is essentially a parallel route to option W4 so people do have an option. 407 would be a more or less continuous highway from Newcastle to West Hamilton - but the agreements may be different on the East, West and Central portions.

I can't think of any highways in the east end that terminate at the 407. Every one of them goes past it, and doesn't force you to either drive on the 407, or get off the 400-series network. The only highways that will do that will be the West & East Durham links, which are being built specifically as connectors between the 401 & 407.

As I understand it, highway 6 will remain a RIRO highway (similar to hwy 11 through Barrie) with the freeway only occuring at the south end to Dundas (Highway 5) and bypassing Morriston to the 401. I do not think the options are either or. Maybe they will choose the Westmost alignment from Kitchener to Hamilton West (W1) and the extension of highway 407 to West Hamilton (W4). I think the environment is more sensitive along the W2 and W3 routes.

That's unfortunate, but I can see why they think that. Highway 6 is lined with homes for almost its entire length, and making it controlled access would be a big issue. Maybe instead they can build a controlled access highway on a new alignment a few hundred metres to the west, although that would require massive expropriation.

Option B for a controlled access highway from the 403 to the 401 in that general vicinity is to build a Highway 424, from just east of Brantford to just east of Cambridge, running more or less a straight shot right up. The 403 has excess capacity, so routing people over and up instead of up and over (assuming point of origin is Hamilton) may be a good way to go.

EDIT: Just thinking too, the widening of the 401 between Kitchener and Milton is still needed, but building the 424 may help take some of the future traffic off the 401, eliminating the need for any further expansions of that highway (for example the installation of an express-collector system).

 

[jamincan]

I know it has been discussed for future expansion, but I cannot see the point of an express/collector system for the 401 west of Milton except maybe in Waterloo Region. With the large spacing of interchanges (which is not likely to change in the future), separating local and through traffic has little benefit and simply increases the land requirements for the roadway.

 

[Markster]

The Express/Collector configuration was suggested for an area bracketing Highway 6 north and south. That was the primary reason for it, to keep 401 traffic segregated from Highway 6 traffic.

Wait a second, this isn't the 401 widening thread....