Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

[Toffy]

Is it prep work for the actual highway or maintenance/repair of the current roadway. It is my understanding that a: 427 extension will not begin until 2017 and b: that the York 99 road north of 7 was simply a temporary road built to much lower engineering standards due to it's temporary nature.

Based on b: I would not be surprised if it is for rehab/repair of the road as it has been closed many times previously due to different issues (pooling water freezing on the roadway, etc)

I think you're right on this one. I found on the Region's website that it is being rebuilt and resurfaced and is supposed to reopen in 6 weeks. I can't find any tender regarding this work. Con-Drain, who built this section of road, who is also doing this work doesn't bid on road rehabilitations, so I'm willing to bet it is being rebuilt on their dime due to poor build quality in the first place.

 

[1overcosc]

Surely you mean Milton?

Oops. Yes I did.

 

[Paolo]

I still think why they are wasting all this money expanding the 4O1 from 3 lanes to 6 (collector +express) west of the 427, however there is a HUGE bottle neck, the actual 401/427 interchange that will still be a source of the problem, people travelling east bound in mississauga on the newly widened highway will still have to move over from their extra wide coazy lane collector and express setup back into the express, well i shouldnt even call it express, it goes down to 3 or so lanes at renfourth, so all that volume is crammed into one part of the highway, there ISNO collector, they should stop wasting money and make the collector connect to the collector lanes at the Lowe's area in etobicoke. where it returns. what a dumb move mto, why has no one bothered to fix it

 

[TOareaFan]

I still think why they are wasting all this money expanding the 4O1 from 3 lanes to 6 (collector +express) west of the 427, however there is a HUGE bottle neck, the actual 401/427 interchange that will still be a source of the problem, people travelling east bound in mississauga on the newly widened highway will still have to move over from their extra wide coazy lane collector and express setup back into the express, well i shouldnt even call it express, it goes down to 3 or so lanes at renfourth, so all that volume is crammed into one part of the highway, there ISNO collector, they should stop wasting money and make the collector connect to the collector lanes at the Lowe's area in etobicoke. where it returns. what a dumb move mto, why has no one bothered to fix it

I think everyone would love to fix it....but the how is more difficult to figure out.....there is no room for a collector/express system there .....unless you double decked the road and had the express fly over the collectors, I guess.

 

[Paolo]

I think everyone would love to fix it....but the how is more difficult to figure out.....there is no room for a collector/express system there .....unless you double decked the road and had the express fly over the collectors, I guess.

of course theres room, why can they do it for the DVP and other interchanges but not the 427? they can demolish it and re build it better, no?

 

[TOareaFan]

of course theres room, why can they do it for the DVP and other interchanges but not the 427? they can demolish it and re build it better, no?

It is not the intersection that is the main issue....it is that there is no room from, roughly, east of 427 to west of Islington to double the width of the 401

 

[Bojaxs]

It is not the intersection that is the main issue....it is that there is no room from, roughly, east of 427 to west of Islington to double the width of the 401

Bury it underground.

 

[TOareaFan]

Bury it underground.

Or, as I said above, double deck it and have the express fly over the collectors.....but both are huge projects that would be highly disruptive during construction and very, very expensive.

 

[Bojaxs]

Or, as I said above, double deck it and have the express fly over the collectors.....but both are huge projects that would be highly disruptive during construction and very, very expensive.

When you say "double deck" the highway, are you referring to a viaduct setup?

 

[TOareaFan]

When you say "double deck" the highway, are you referring to a viaduct setup?

I am not an engineer or a road builder....I was simply using laymen's words to say that since there is no way to make the road wider to add lanes....you either have to:

a) build a bunch of lanes over top/above the current lanes
b) build them under the current lanes
c) live with what you have.

 

[jamincan]

I actually don't find that stretch terribly painful. Westbound usually seems better than eastbound, but both tend to be over quickly enough for me. Somehow I find the stretch from where the collectors start at around Hurontario to Milton far more annoying.

 

[JasonParis]

I still think why they are wasting all this money expanding the 4O1 from 3 lanes to 6 (collector +express) west of the 427, however there is a HUGE bottle neck, the actual 401/427 interchange that will still be a source of the problem, people travelling east bound in mississauga on the newly widened highway will still have to move over from their extra wide coazy lane collector and express setup back into the express, well i shouldnt even call it express, it goes down to 3 or so lanes at renfourth, so all that volume is crammed into one part of the highway, there ISNO collector, they should stop wasting money and make the collector connect to the collector lanes at the Lowe's area in etobicoke. where it returns. what a dumb move mto, why has no one bothered to fix it

I do tend to think of this as the biggest MTO issue in Toronto-proper, but the one least likely to be fixed anytime soon.

Unrelated, but do others agree that renaming the Mississauga stretch of the 403, the 410 would make more sense than having two different 403's (although technically, it's a 403/QEW combo through Oakville/Burlington)?

 

[gweed123]

I do tend to think of this as the biggest MTO issue in Toronto-proper, but the one least likely to be fixed anytime soon.

Agreed. It's also the biggest physical obstacle to turning the 401 into a partial toll highway (express paid, collector free). I think that's ultimately what the region needs to move towards.

 

[Markster]

people travelling east bound in mississauga on the newly widened highway will still have to move over from their extra wide coazy lane collector and express setup back into the express, well i shouldnt even call it express, it goes down to 3 or so lanes at renfourth,

At the minimum, the 401 is 4 lanes each direction.

so all that volume is crammed into one part of the highway, there ISNO collector, they should stop wasting money and make the collector connect to the collector lanes at the Lowe's area in etobicoke. where it returns. what a dumb move mto, why has no one bothered to fix it

If I recall correctly, they did fix it, in a way. Until sometime around 10 years ago, it went down to 3 lanes each direction.

Really, they need to encourage more people to do the 427-409 maneuver.

 

[ShonTron]

Markster is correct, the 401 used to be three lanes under the 401 until about a decade ago. It can't get any wider than four lanes in each direction without rebuiding the whole interchange almost from scratch. The 401-427-27-Eglinton interchange was built with different traffic patterns in mind - the Richview Expressway was planned for Toronto-Hamilton traffic, it would have diverted some east-west traffic that now goes through the 401. The collectors-express set up west of there was to handle 401 and Richview-403 traffic.

---

The 404 extension will open in a few weeks to Ravenshoe Road. What really gets me though is that the MTO isn't building capacity into that freeway extension. I was up in Haliburton on the weekend and driving through Beaverton both ways was aggravating due to traffic backups on Highway 12 and poorly built intersections with Highway 48 on both ends (don’t even think about stopping at the Tim Horton’s there!). In York Region, Highway 48 is painful all the way until traffic heads over to the 404 via Mount Albert/Woodbine/Green Lane or Davis Drive.

I’m not a big fan of highway expansion, but someone should have figured out a long time ago that where Highways 12 and 48 used to be multiplexed near Beaverton (before the Harris downloadings) should be four lanes, and some improvements on 48 are badly needed. Otherwise all that extra traffic off the 404 will have nowhere to go but to get dumped on a poor highway infrastructure to the northeast.