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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

400 is being widened to 6+2HOV in the next few years. First south of King Road for 2019, then early 2020's for Highway 9. this work will also future proof the highway for them to easily add an additional general purpose lane in each direction. Its really a massive project, it involves replacing all the original bridge structures, widening shoulders, upgrading interchanges, etc. 400 will be a lot more modern of a highway when it is done.

404 to 11 would be overkill. Getting it to Sutton / Highway 48 would probably be worth it though. Its an additional 15km, probably $300 million or so to get that done.

The 427 could eventually get extended past Major Mackenzie as a part of the GTA West corridor, connecting it with the new east-west highway just south of Bolton.
 
They are "reviewing" it right now, and paused the Environmental Assessment. An update on what they want to do with it is supposed to come out any day. There is a pretty strong lobby in support of it, I imagine they will approve it to continue provided it has some sort of sustainable feature included like a Transitway or something.

I suspect it'll be a toll road as well.
 
I think there's enough demand west of Barrie to warrant an extension of the 427 North, even if the northern portions peter out to a super two style highway. And it is on this point that I diverge from the current planning for the 437 extension; current plans call for the 427 to veer East to meet up with the 400 somewhere around Innisfil. I'd rather it continue N-NW and feed into the Wasaga/Collingwood area. Connecting with, say, hwy 26 in Stayner.
 
Is expanding highways outwards usually better than expanding inwards?

Is densifying higher order public transit more important than expanding outwards and spread out?
 
Transportfan said:
But that leaves no reduncancy.
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True, but it's still very expensive to extend a freeway just for redundancy. The onus will be on York Region/Vaughan to improve their major N-S arteries.

innsertnamehere said:
probably over half of it is the maintain contract. My understanding is that it includes plowing, paving, etc. for 30 years. Those costs add up. These DBFM contracts seem to really inflate the construction costs, but usually, it's much lower. It's no different than the 407 extension, the whole thing was $2.2 billion, but actual construction costs were probably closer to half of that.
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Although the details are not yet known, it might even include future widening/improvements. E.g. within 30 years from construction, the section from Rutherford to Major Mackenzie may need to be widened from 4 to 6 lanes, etc. Also consider extension further north to tie into GTA west.
 
narduch said:
Extending the 427 up to Hwy 9 and/or Wasaga will just spur on sprawl.
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I agree. However, I'm looking at it not as a full 6 lane divided highway, but rather stepped down at some point (north of hwy 9) to a lesser highway.

Barrie has already expanded so much that the 400 is being crowded simply from Barrieites (Barrieians?) doing their daily stuff, it's to the point that the long weekend traffic easily overwhelms it and nearby parallel routes. Hence my suggestion as an alternative route to Wasaga/Collingwood.
 
Most traffic on the weekend isn't Collingwood bound, however, its Muskoka / Haliburton bound. the 427 wouldn't fix that travel pattern, you would want an alternative route around the east side of Lake Simcoe for that.

Ultimately, upgrading the 400 is the best approach. The HOVs they are adding right now will essentially act as a full additional lane during cottaging season due the large amount of multi-passenger vehicles, so it should be pretty effective at reducing cottage-bound travel times.
 
My preference would be to curve the 427 eastward and have it connect to the 400 between Kirby and King Vaughan Rds. It accomplishes much of the same goal of extending the 427 to the south end of cottage country, but without the enormous cost or same degree of environmental impact. It would in essence act as a bypass for the southern 400, and would be the preferable route for people coming from the western GTA, as the 427 would provide direct access to the QEW.

As for the 404, I'm in favour of it going around the eastern side of Lake Simcoe and connecting to Hwy 11 around either Orillia or Washago. The section of 11 between there and Gravenhurst can be upgraded to 400-series standards, while the section south of the intersection can be left as RIRO. That would in effect extend the 404 all the way to North Bay.
 
gweed123 said:
My preference would be to curve the 427 eastward and have it connect to the 400 between Kirby and King Vaughan Rds. It accomplishes much of the same goal of extending the 427 to the south end of cottage country, but without the enormous cost or same degree of environmental impact. It would in essence act as a bypass for the southern 400, and would be the preferable route for people coming from the western GTA, as the 427 would provide direct access to the QEW.
Click to expand...
Join into the GTA West highway (King-Vaughan Road & Hwy. 400 to the top of Hwy. 410 to Jct. of Hwy. 407/401).
GTA-West1.png


My first thought is that Hwy. 400 is slow well north of that and a Barrie By-Pass is also needed in the future.
map_5.jpg
 
BurlOak said:
GTA-West1.png



map_5.jpg
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Looking at the top map, the MTO should have extended the 410 directly north to the GTAW corridor and swung it west along that corridor (via a fastracked route selection for that short stretch) rather than building it as they did. The 410 extension as built may end up making for an unwieldy connection at best (due to a section of Hwy. 10/Hurontario "disappearing") or throwaway infrastructure at worst.

For the 427 extension, they should choose the option tying into the 400 at Hwy. 93 so it could be channelled directly into 400. The 400 from there north to Sudbury could be renumbered as 427.

Although some people are still getting used to 69 being renumbered as 400!
 
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