Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

[north-of-anything]

Reconstruction of County Rd. 88 bridge on the horizon

The cost of the project will be split 50-50 between the province and the town

www.bradfordtoday.ca

The old two-lane bridge crossing over Highway 400 just west of Bradford is set to be replaced beginning next year. It's one of the last original bridges from when the 400 first opened, and with the imminent increase in industrial traffic, the interchange as a whole needs a revamp. I expect the project will be similar to what's happening at Highway 89 and Lloydtown-Aurora Road, with a realignment of the on-ramps and off-ramps in addition to the new, wider bridge.

 

[kamira51]

Caledon like all the rest of Ontario is having its municipal election currently and one of the mayor candidates that running has this to offer instead of the 413.

HWY 413 Alternative | Annette Groves

www.annette4mayor.ca

To extend highway 427 to highway 9 is more devastating to the environment than the 413 is, and this mayor candidate opposed the 413, so for her to make this suggestion is very silly.

 

[north-of-anything]

I would support extending the 427 to Bolton, if it was feasible, but any farther than that is pointless - there will never be enough demand generated beyond there to justify a full 400-series highway.

Also, who else would even support a northwards 427 extension outside of Caledon? Part of why the Bradford Bypass has so much political support is there are many nearby communities that believe they would benefit from it. Orangeville is probably fine with Highway 410, New Tecumseth will make use of the widened Highway 400, Vaughan is almost entirely covered by the last extension, and Brampton would try to make it a 10 lane urban boulevard.

 

[Steve X]

Caledon like all the rest of Ontario is having its municipal election currently and one of the mayor candidates that running has this to offer instead of the 413.

HWY 413 Alternative | Annette Groves

www.annette4mayor.ca

View attachment 432757

To extend highway 427 to highway 9 is more devastating to the environment than the 413 is, and this mayor candidate opposed the 413, so for her to make this suggestion is very silly.

I support extending it to Barrie to serve as an alternative to the 400 in case that gets shut down. I also believe green space policy needs to be put in place to prevent development as these highway should only provide relief, not urban sprawl.

 

[lenaitch]

I support extending it to Barrie to serve as an alternative to the 400 in case that gets shut down. I also believe green space policy needs to be put in place to prevent development as these highway should only provide relief, not urban sprawl.

That would be a lot of public money for just a 'safety valve'. Under that logic, a parallel 400 series highway should run continuously from Windsor to the Quebec border. Of course a 427 to Barrie would be used, create induced volume and end up creating a bottleneck in Barrie where the two come together.

 

[11th]

That would be a lot of public money for just a 'safety valve'. Under that logic, a parallel 400 series highway should run continuously from Windsor to the Quebec border. Of course a 427 to Barrie would be used, create induced volume and end up creating a bottleneck in Barrie where the two come together.

That highway should probably merge with 400 north of Barrie. There won't be much of a bottleneck.

 

[T3G]

Warning

Stay away from the QEW starting Oct 28-31 in Mississauga as you will be in a major traffic jam. This was to taken place Thanksgiving weekend with a 65 hour closure, but wasn't ready for the closure considering it was known 2 years ago.

The east side of Hurontario St is close and will be dug up for both direction to allow for the push box for the "NEW" 3 northbound lanes to be push into position and the existing QEW lanes rebuilt. "ALL" QEW traffic will use a 2 lane off/on ramp to bypass the closure. The existing Northbound lanes will be converted for the LRT.

As far as I know, no Hurontario traffic will be allow to use the ramps as it would slow down the QEW traffic a lot more.
<https://blog.metrolinx.com/2022/10/13/weekend-restrictions-on-qew-partial-closure-of-hurontario/>

Sounds like a good weekend for GO to divert their buses to Port Credit for no reason again!

 

[north-of-anything]

That highway should probably merge with 400 north of Barrie. There won't be much of a bottleneck.

If it was going to connect with the 400 at all, I would loop it around the western edge of Barrie and across the north shore of Little Lake, and merge it into Highway 11.

Such an extension would also pummel Bradford, New Tecumseth, Essa, and western Innisfil with suburban sprawl and logistics centres, though, and unless the Bolton GO extension comes first and reaches all the way to Alliston, I wouldn't be okay with that. They would also probably get a Bradford Bypass extension to meet the 427 close to Beeton, and I don't think that would go over well with the locals. I think an expanded 400 will be enough to cover the region's medium-term needs, especially as Simcoe towns get serious about infill and transit-oriented development.

 

[ericmacm]

Not a fan of the idea of extending 427 to Barrie. The 427 should end at the 413 and not be extended further since it would be serving undevelopable Greenbelt for a massive chunk of the highway and wouldn't hit anything major past it until around New Tecumseth. I agree that the congestion on the 400 is getting pretty bad between Barrie and the GTA, but there's still massive amounts of room within the ROW to fit in additional lanes if necessary. I would sooner go that route than build a new parallel highway. However, I think it would start to make more sense if Barrie doubled in size and a bunch of new smaller centres popped up in Simcoe region.

The Bradford Bypass will also help create a bit of redundancy for the 400 here as well by allowing people to use the 404 for part of the way up/down instead.

 

[Transportfan]

Orangeville is probably fine with Highway 410,

I think extending the 410 north would be better than the 427. There's a lot of traffic going up to Orangeville from Peel and beyond to Collingwood/Wasaga.

 

[nfitz]

I think extending the 410 north would be better than the 427. There's a lot of traffic going up to Orangeville from Peel and beyond to Collingwood/Wasaga.

404 to Orillia (or Washago) might help too. I'm not sure the long-term plan though, takes it past Highway 12, or even Beaverton.

 

[innsertnamehere]

404 to Orillia (or Washago) might help too. I'm not sure the long-term plan though, takes it past Highway 12, or even Beaverton.

The EA was completed in the early 2000's to bring it to Highway 12 in Beaverton. That's effectively pretty dead though, I'd be surprised to see it get extended past 48 in Sutton.

The 400 widening to 10 lanes from Barrie to Vaughan is expected to handle travel demand on the corridor for the next 30 years at least, any additional needed capacity would be very far off.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

I thought there was a dedicated thread to the QEW/Dixie road interchange improvements but I couldn't find it or maybe I was just confused with the QEW/Credit River bridge one.
Anyway, photos and video from October 16th:

 

[Transportfan]

I thought there was a dedicated thread to the QEW/Dixie road interchange improvements but I couldn't find it or maybe I was just confused with the QEW/Credit River bridge one.
Anyway, photos and video from October 16th:
View attachment 433695View attachment 433696

I'm assuming that's a shoofly road.

I also amazed at how much semi-rural housing and developments there are in extreme southeast Mississauga; in an area you'd least expect to see that.

 

[just east of the creek]

I'm assuming that's a shoofly road.

I also amazed at how much semi-rural housing and developments there are in extreme southeast Mississauga; in an area you'd least expect to see that.

Until after the war, this area was very rural. Somewhere I have some topographical maps of the area, and moving west, and it was all very rural, with some mixed housing along the lakeshore and Dundas. A lot of that housing still exists, although in recent years, the pressure to build the 4,000 sq ft stucco box has made an impact.