Hey, as long as Canada gets 100% of the toll revenues for paying for 100% of the costs, I'm fine with that. It could be argued that the connection is more valuable to the Canadian economy than the American economy anyway.
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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion
- Thread starter Haljackey
- Start date
Hey, as long as Canada gets 100% of the toll revenues for paying for 100% of the costs, I'm fine with that. It could be argued that the connection is more valuable to the Canadian economy than the American economy anyway.
ShonTron
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And if it puts the boots to Matty Maroun, than that's a nice bonus. Amongst other things, Maroun is Windsor's biggest slumlord
nfitz
Superstar
I've joked with American colleagues a few times that Canada should get Detroit and the Michigan peninsula back.
And they all keep saying yes ...
W. K. Lis
Superstar
I know that Detroit is nearly bankrupt, but getting it as a short sale?
rbt
Senior Member
Detroit has a $200 million budget deficit and $13.2 billion in long-term structural debt. Population shrank by 25% between 2000 and 2010. On top of that, nearly all underground infrastructure is failing. When a pipe bursts, they turn off the water and try to move the residents in low density areas (many blocks have 1 house remaining out of the original 20 to 30).
All that said, the soil within city where most housing was demolished is reasonably good farm land. I've seen wild cherries, mulberries, mustard, mint, and animals including wild pheasants, turkeys and roosters (probably someones fighting cocks got out).
At $10,000 per acre (going rate in Southern Ontario), it only gives the the City of Detroit a farming land value of $1B. Even for free Detroit is a bad buy unless Michigan keeps the debt, but if Michigan took over the debt then that $200M deficit disappears nearly immediately.
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UWGrad09
New Member
Not sure if anyone has seen this yet, but McGuinty is promising the new highway 7 between Guelph and Kitchener to be started within 3 years. Keep in mind that he announced this while campaigning in Kitchener for the by-election, so who knows if it's just an empty election promise. Here's the link to the article in the record
http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/778462--hwy-7-project-within-3-years-mcguinty
http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/778462--hwy-7-project-within-3-years-mcguinty
andrewpmk
Senior Member
Why is there still no bus service between Kitchener and Guelph?
nfitz
Superstar
Greyhound and other operators have had a bus service between Kitchener and Guelph for decades.
dunkalunk
Senior Member
So, the Ontario government has $300 Million (in 2007 Dollars) to spend on highways, but not $300 million to pay for their promised 2/3 of rapid transit funding. Hmm.
Frankly, what is proposed is overbuilt. If the priory is to improve safety and capacity, then this can be done in the existing corridor. There seem to be no incremental options presented, just the one proposal to put a new 4 lane grade-separated highway in a 100m right of way to allow for expansion to 6 lanes past the 2040 horizon.
I also have to question whether on not a new bridge over the Grand River is necessary after the extension of Fairway Road to Kossuth, or if a 4-level interchange costing 1/4 of the project's budget is necessary when there are slight modifications that could be made to the existing Wellington Street Interchange to serve current needs.
And finally, I question the desire to sink $300+ million into this corridor when transit options have not been fully explored (if at all). Travel between the two cities is expensive, infrequent, and slow.
If I could wager, I'd say that this is only an election issue because a certain Record columnist raised a stink about it.
Frankly, what is proposed is overbuilt. If the priory is to improve safety and capacity, then this can be done in the existing corridor. There seem to be no incremental options presented, just the one proposal to put a new 4 lane grade-separated highway in a 100m right of way to allow for expansion to 6 lanes past the 2040 horizon.
I also have to question whether on not a new bridge over the Grand River is necessary after the extension of Fairway Road to Kossuth, or if a 4-level interchange costing 1/4 of the project's budget is necessary when there are slight modifications that could be made to the existing Wellington Street Interchange to serve current needs.
And finally, I question the desire to sink $300+ million into this corridor when transit options have not been fully explored (if at all). Travel between the two cities is expensive, infrequent, and slow.
If I could wager, I'd say that this is only an election issue because a certain Record columnist raised a stink about it.
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RandomBusGuy
New Member
In addition to that, GRT and Guelph transit are currently working on a plan for 30 minute all day service between Kitchener and Guelph. This could be in place for much much less than the cost of a new highway, and could take a decent amount of demand off the highway. I'd really like to see a policy of expanding transit first before expanding highway capacity, and only doing that as a last resort.
The 300 million this highway will cost is about the same as the expanded go service was supposed to cost, however, "they didn't have the money" and so a bare bones, 19 million dollar service was put in place. I'd like to see that money used to expand the GO service adding the missing stops, and hopefully allowing for a reverse peak train from Guelph to Kitchener.
nfitz
Superstar
And why shouldn't they raise a stink about it? The provincial government has been promising this highway since the 1960s. They even built a short bit of it at the highway 7/85 junction back in the 1960s (though won't be used under current plan).
The Tories broke promise-after-promise about this highway in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. And the Liberals have followed suit. The Record should have raised a stink about this a long time ago.
Markster
Senior Member
This is my major concern with the highway plan. The Wellington interchange as designed is going to be drastically over-built and over-priced, just so they can have 100km/h flyovers instead of 70 km/h ramps.
ShonTron
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To justify this new highway, existing Highway 7 has been left as a rural 2 lane road where the province still maintains it. Since Waterloo Region maintains it from Breslau westward, and the City of Guelph within its boundaries, it is four lanes and upgraded. I wonder that if the road was downloaded in its entirety in the Harris era, it would be four-laned by now.
Who knew the Waterloo LRT would be further ahead than 7 New by now?
Who knew the Waterloo LRT would be further ahead than 7 New by now?
mpd618
Active Member
I like the sound of that, but I haven't heard such details. Where did you?
Personally, I would like to see an O-Train style DMU running between Downtown Kitchener and Downtown Guelph. Add in a few more stops (nothing fancy, much like the O-Train stops), and I think it would be a pretty successful service. Double track at select locations where necessary in order to get better frequencies, maybe at the midway point for example.