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Roads: Highway 401 Widening - Highway 8 to Highway 410 (MTO, U/C, Planned)

Aug 3
Photos up for the Grand River Bridges
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I was driving up to Kitchener on Friday for work and I noticed that the old bridge span in the middle is now completely gone. As someone who lives in London, I am excited for this project's completion to open up the potential for finishing the missing western connection of the HWY 8/401 interchange. Having to use King Street to get into the city is such a pain.
 
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For those that don't travel west too often, full-out paving operations have been underway on the remaining expansion between Hespler and Townline. All new sections have been paved and most old-new sections have been ground down to pave over. High-mast light poles are waiting beside their respective mounts on the barrier, which is also complete. Looks like they want to finish this before the winter, though more paving may be necessary in the spring. HOV lines have been painted in some sections and 2 left lanes have been closed since JUNE (ugh) in both directions between Hespler and HWY 8 in anticipation of painting the HOV lanes into these parts.

Are there any details on what is going on between Tremaine and Hwy 25? Looks like a new overpass is under construction?
 
Are there any details on what is going on between Tremaine and Hwy 25? Looks like a new overpass is under construction?
There will be a new interchange between 401 and Tremaine (Regional Rd 22). Can’t find much documentation for it but the Halton Region webpage reports a construction completion of November 2026.

Edit: updated the link URL, and here’s the figure from that page.
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Yeah, I keep forgetting to mention that construction for the new Tremaine interchange bridge finally seems to have started. When I rolled through there a few weeks ago traffic had been diverted away from the median by jersey barriers and caisson drilling had begun. That's going to make it so much easier to get to Glen Eden, can't wait!
 
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Having lost the fight against the CN Logistics Hub at Tremaine & Britannia, Halton Region may be responding by bringing this junction forward in an attempt to keep trucks away from suburban streets. Perhaps there will be a truck ban on Steeles between Industrial Dr and Tremaine
 
I have no idea what Halton Region is doing, but it seems like every concession road is being disconnected and realigned to something else for no reason at all (Tremaine here, but also Burnhamthorpe). Mississauga/Brampton didn't escape this, with Creditview absolutely being butchered north of the 401 into many non-contiguous section. But you'd think urban planners would have learned and tried to keep whatever grid exists in place, rather than destroying it. It really boggles my mind. Whereas York Region is trying to reconnect its grid (or at least Langstaff they're trying to) and Toronto reconnected portions of Dufferin after like a hundred years.
 
I have no idea what Halton Region is doing, but it seems like every concession road is being disconnected and realigned to something else for no reason at all (Tremaine here, but also Burnhamthorpe). Mississauga/Brampton didn't escape this, with Creditview absolutely being butchered north of the 401 into many non-contiguous section. But you'd think urban planners would have learned and tried to keep whatever grid exists in place, rather than destroying it. It really boggles my mind. Whereas York Region is trying to reconnect its grid (or at least Langstaff they're trying to) and Toronto reconnected portions of Dufferin after like a hundred years.
The main reason why we’re seeing so many realignments is due to property owners who oppose road widening projects. It’s reasonable when there are many houses with already little frontage to the street; owners would lose some land, have their home closer to busier road and deal with tons of construction.

As an example, here’s a section of old Tremaine:
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And more recently realigned, Britannia:
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In both cases the new ROW has more than doubled in width. I would assume this is a similar case with Burnamthorpe/William Hanlon.

Luckily, the Tremaine realignment shouldn’t negatively impact any trips since any route north needs to detour around the escarpment.

I agree that Peel is a real mess though, serious lack of north/south thoroughfares.
 
I wasn't even aware of that ridiculous Britannia realignment. Jeez.
Oh!! lets bulldoze everything next to the straight roads and forget about the ppl who live there or structure older than you so you can drive straight. Give me a break.

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what about the Derry Road bypass for Meadowvale??
 
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The Tremaine widening and connectivity is absolutely necessary to support the new CN yard and the logistics facilities along the 401.

We can debate whether the CN yard is in the right place, but that's water over the bridge. At this point, it's read-em-and-weep territory.

As for making everything straight and grid-driven, it doesn't seem to be a concern for much of the rest of the world.

- Paul
 
That new interchange maybe seems a bit close to hwy 25 no?
Marginally, but that was not the consideration. Halton used 'waste' land, formerly a clay quarry I believe, and re-routed traffic from existing settlement areas on a roadway more compatible for the anticipated volume requirements leading into the rail development lands. There is a lot of talk about keeping truck traffic off sideroads, which is fully supportable. As are bypasses around existing developed areas. We've touched on that in some previous conversations, but the planning propensity to bull doze 6 and 8 lane roadways through existing villages is not excusable. A current regional example would be Palermo.
 
The Tremaine widening and connectivity is absolutely necessary to support the new CN yard and the logistics facilities along the 401.

We can debate whether the CN yard is in the right place, but that's water over the bridge. At this point, it's read-em-and-weep territory.

As for making everything straight and grid-driven, it doesn't seem to be a concern for much of the rest of the world.

- Paul
Um what? Other cities have much more functional and complete street grids. New York City for example.
 
Um what? Other cities have much more functional and complete street grids. New York City for example.
Complete? There's keeps breaking apart with rivers and islands. And certainly roads joining each other and breaking the grid. Look at how East 145th turns into East 149th.

They are what they are ...
 

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