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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

Transportfan said:
I suspect this is one of the reasons Crombie and McCallion before wanted to separate from Peel. Regional roads have lots of rural-style signage and excess sign clutter such as prominent freeway-type signage pointing to every golf course, motel, and piddly little attraction. Being in an RM infanticizes cities due to stuff like this.
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Not sure if you are referring to private advertising signs or those on municipal/provincial property. It's called advertising. I don't like the clutter, but here we are. I assume both (every) municipality has a 'sign bylaw'. What they say and how strongly they are enforced depends. The MTO 'attractions' signs are paid for by the businessattraction and are not cheap. I see some municipalities have something similar on their roads and assume they are similarly funded.

Transportfan said:
The address numbering is different in Dufferin and Simcoe and I assume their dispatch systems are too. The highest number on Airport Rd. in Peel is 19, 054, and the lowest in Dufferin is 933,003.
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Thanks. I didn't know the numbers changed.

Same call centre/dispatch system. If the call comes from a landline or viop (properly programmed) phone it's not particularly problematic since the location pops up on the screen. Same with a GPS-enabled celphone.
 
whydidimakethis said:
With Peel region now set to dissolve, this is probably the end of the Peel regional road network as well. This could go in two directions, one being the Toronto way, with no numbers for any roads. The other way is similar to Hamilton or Kawartha Lakes, with numbered routes in a single tier municipality. Personally, I feel as if no route numbers are the correct way to go, as the numbers as they are are already largely insignificant, other than former Hwy 7 and 24. Even those are probably not worth saving, because everyone knows Queen St. and Bovaird Drive, and Peel Regional Road 24 is still called "Highway 24".

edit: message 100!
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Hamilton got rid of most numbered routes, just maintaining numbers on former provincial highways (2, 5, 8, 20, 52, 53, 56, 99), signed as Hamilton routes. Ottawa also kept most of its former regional route numbers – though only a few are commonly used. Chatham-Kent and Sudbury, like Kawartha Lakes, kept the numbers.

I’d expect only Caledon to maintain numbered roads, but maybe it won’t even bother, except maybe 24, 50, and 136. It’s an odd thing that when Highways 5 and 10 were downloaded, they went to Mississauga and Brampton, but when Highways 7, 24, 50, and 136, they went to Peel Region.
 
ShonTron said:
I’d expect only Caledon to maintain numbered roads, but maybe it won’t even bother, except maybe 24, 50, and 136. It’s an odd thing that when Highways 5 and 10 were downloaded, they went to Mississauga and Brampton, but when Highways 7, 24, 50, and 136, they went to Peel Region.
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The way I recall the 'Harris downloading' of roads, the base criteria was whether the road now served a local vs. inter-jurisdictional purpose, but there was a balancing-of-books component as well between the province and municipalities since the province also uploaded some services. There is a stretch of Hwy 12/Cty Rd. 16 near Coldwater where it is a Prov. Hwy, then a County road for a mere 6km, then a Provincial highway again. I get that the purpose of some roads can change over their length, but this short section suggest that it was something else at play. It is further complicated since Hwy 12 is twinned with Hwy 400 for that short parallel distance and are as close as a few hundred metres. This seems to confuse travellers and their GPSs as I have seen several dangerous incidents at the south intersection.
 
ShonTron said:
Hamilton got rid of most numbered routes, just maintaining numbers on former provincial highways (2, 5, 8, 20, 52, 53, 56, 99), signed as Hamilton routes. Ottawa also kept most of its former regional route numbers – though only a few are commonly used. Chatham-Kent and Sudbury, like Kawartha Lakes, kept the numbers.

I’d expect only Caledon to maintain numbered roads, but maybe it won’t even bother, except maybe 24, 50, and 136. It’s an odd thing that when Highways 5 and 10 were downloaded, they went to Mississauga and Brampton, but when Highways 7, 24, 50, and 136, they went to Peel Region.
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I'm pretty sure highways 5 and 10 were maintained by the cities at the time of the mass downgrade, Ontario just provided subsidies through Connecting Link agreements. Without the subsidies, the designations went away as Peel wasn't funding them.

Caledon and rural Brampton (in 1997, it was a different town) required Peel region government to fund it's travelling network thus those got reginal road designations.
 
lenaitch said:
Not sure if you are referring to private advertising signs or those on municipal/provincial property. It's called advertising. I don't like the clutter, but here we are. I assume both (every) municipality has a 'sign bylaw'. What they say and how strongly they are enforced depends. The MTO 'attractions' signs are paid for by the businessattraction and are not cheap. I see some municipalities have something similar on their roads and assume they are similarly funded.
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They're official guide signs, but seem to be restricted to regional municipalities.
 
Progress on the Highway 6/Wellington Road 34 interchange, taken on May 27 on a flight home from MSP.

IMG_5407.jpeg
 
Does anyone know where to get information about the highway 401 expansion project in Eastern Ontario? A quick google search only returns articles from the 2022 budget.
 
mrgrieves said:
Does anyone know where to get information about the highway 401 expansion project in Eastern Ontario? A quick google search only returns articles from the 2022 budget.
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What expansion program? I didn't think anything was planned in the next few years - other perhaps than taking advantage of bridge replacements, etc.
 
nfitz said:
What expansion program? I didn't think anything was planned in the next few years - other perhaps than taking advantage of bridge replacements, etc.
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Nothing has officially been announced but the province is slowly moving towards it.. They have done the EA to widen the 401 through Belleville from what I recall, which will likely be the next part to move to construction.

It's certainly nothing nearly as comprehensive as the 6-laning project west of London down to Windsor, which has active EAs underway for the entire corridor, has already had the first phase completed, and should see the second section move to construction this year with the Highway 4 Interchange replacement starting.

That said - we are still waiting on the 2023 Highways program to be released, which should include a batch of new expansion projects.. I wouldn't be surprised if the Belleville widening is on there.

I'm also expecting some more stretches of the 400 to be included as well, plus a few other small things around the province. We'll have to see.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Nothing has officially been announced but the province is slowly moving towards it.. They have done the EA to widen the 401 through Belleville from what I recall, which will likely be the next part to move to construction.

It's certainly nothing nearly as comprehensive as the 6-laning project west of London down to Windsor, which has active EAs underway for the entire corridor, has already had the first phase completed, and should see the second section move to construction this year with the Highway 4 Interchange replacement starting.

That said - we are still waiting on the 2023 Highways program to be released, which should include a batch of new expansion projects.. I wouldn't be surprised if the Belleville widening is on there.

I'm also expecting some more stretches of the 400 to be included as well, plus a few other small things around the province. We'll have to see.
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I'm starting to think the 2022 highway program was an election tool and we wont see another till 2026.
 
Deadpool X said:
Widening 401 through Durham should be a high priority. It's strange to widen the highway to 6 lanes in countryside while the same highway is still 6 lanes in an urban area.
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The costs and completion time are likely much higher in a built up urban area, but to your point the benefits are much higher as well
 
Deadpool X said:
Widening 401 through Durham should be a high priority. It's strange to widen the highway to 6 lanes in countryside while the same highway is still 6 lanes in an urban area.
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All of it is slowly working along.. most of the bridges through central Oshawa are getting replaced next year in advance of it.

Those bridges are also the oldest bridges in the ontario freeway network, dating from the great depression era of the mid 1930's, so they are well overdue for replacement in general, but they will make space for the additional lanes in the future.
 
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