Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

[innsertnamehere]

oh good, its finally out. Really, really late though.

Absolutely nothing new in it from what I can tell. a few date changes in it some completion dates have been added, but generally, nothing.

 

[nfitz]

Absolutely nothing new in it from what I can tell. a few date changes in it some completion dates have been added, but generally, nothing.

In the list of upcoming projects at the end, there's 401 in Belleville, and a new Wolfe Islander.

I'm surprised the Highway 7 from Guelph to Kitchener is slipping in delivery date - wasn't that a campaign promise.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Those are unfunded projects, "future projects" is essentially a list of projects MTO has done environmental assessments on. They pick from that list when they have some money to spend, but those projects are not funded.

The completion date for Highway 7 has always been beyond 2018, its supposed to be 2020.

 

[nfitz]

The completion date for Highway 7 has always been beyond 2018, its supposed to be 2020.

Though the 2013 said beyond 2016. A year later, it's beyond 2018.

 

[innsertnamehere]

the "beyond" dates really mean that construction is beyond the 5 year horizon. Sometimes they don't update them for political reasons.. (69 upgrades are all listed as "Beyond 2016" still to not break the now clearly impossible promise of completion by 2017)

 

[Johnny Au]

However, the Trans Canada to Toronto is rather in chunks as they didnt want a direct route to Toronto but rather one that could hit as many communities as possible - and that is why the entire 400 is not listed as Trans Canada highway.

That is also why the TCH does not enter Halifax.

Toronto and Halifax are the only two provincial capitals not to be connected by the TCH.

 

[Johnny Au]

The TCH would go through even more communities if it continued down to Toronto and followed the 401 east...it would also make more sense than the rather pointless Central Ontario Route.

I would agree. Toronto itself contains more communities than those counties with rural hamlets the TCH goes through instead of Toronto.

 

[Transportfan]

That is also why the TCH does not enter Halifax.

But in Halifax's case it makes sense as there's no good direct route to loop back to the mainline.

 

[arcum]

Holcim/Cintra have been selected to design, build, finance, and maintain 407 east extension phase 2.
http://www.highway407east.com/project-info/project-background/procurement/

Cintra are the majority owners of the current Highway 407.

Dollar amount of the contract will be released later this year.

 

[innsertnamehere]

They are also building the 407 phase 1 I believe.

Anyone know of any concrete roads in the GTA? outside of the 400 series highway network. I dropped onto streetview on lakeshore in Oakville today and noticed the road was concrete... never seen that in the GTA. Are there any other roads that use concrete?

 

[nfitz]

They are also building the 407 phase 1 I believe.

Holcim/Cintra? I don't think so. Cintra is involved, but I didn't think Holcim was. I thought SNC/Lavalin was the other partner for Phase 1.

The implication is that Cintra dumped SNC/Lavalin for Phase 2. Presumably after SNC/Lavalin admitted to corruption and criminal acts around the world, and in Canada.

I dropped onto streetview on lakeshore in Oakville today and noticed the road was concrete... never seen that in the GTA. Are there any other roads that use concrete?

Many roads are concrete these days, with a layer of asphalt on top. Perhaps it wasn't finished?

 

[waterloowarrior]

Dufferin Construction (Holcim) and Ferrovial Agroman (Cintra) are the construction companies involved for Phase 2. SNC-Lavalin was on another team with AECON and Miller Paving

Phase 1 is being completed by Cintra and SNC-Lavalin. Dufferin, Miller, and AECON were all on the same team bidding for Phase 1.

407ETR is owned by Cintra, SNC-Lavalin and CPPIB

 

[Dan416]

Dufferin Construction (Holcim) and Ferrovial Agroman (Cintra) are the construction companies involved for Phase 2. SNC-Lavalin was on another team with AECON and Miller Paving

Phase 1 is being completed by Cintra and SNC-Lavalin. Dufferin, Miller, and AECON were all on the same team bidding for Phase 1.

407ETR is owned by Cintra, SNC-Lavalin and CPPIB

The 407 is owned by the Province. It's only leased to 407 ETR for 100 years

 

[waterloowarrior]

The 407 is owned by the Province. It's only leased to 407 ETR for 100 years

Sorry I mean 407 ETR as in "407 ETR Concession Company Limited" (which goes by "407 ETR")/407 International Inc.. I'm not sure what is a subsidiary of what, but overall the company with the lease is owned by
-Cintra (43.23%)
-CPPIB (40%)
-SNC-Lavalin (16.77%). SNC-Lavalin was shopping its share last year, not sure what the status of that is

 

[Toffy]

Many roads are concrete these days, with a layer of asphalt on top. Perhaps it wasn't finished?

A concrete base, yes. In fact most major roads in Toronto feature a concrete base, but feature two or three lifts of asphalt for the surface course. This has been the norm for a few decades now, nothing new. Mississauga and Brampton on the other hand just use a virgin aggregate mix as the base course. Fun fact: Asphalt surface courses with concrete base courses deteriorate very differently than those with virgin aggregate base courses.

As for that section of Lakeshore (Southdown-Winston Churchill), it is indeed finished with concrete due to all the truck traffic from the Petro Canada refinery and (coincidentally enough) Holcim's cement plant. It's a single lane road in each direction and a regular asphalt finish would become rutted quite quickly.

Although stone mastic asphalt (SMA) is once again on the rise after a moratorium on its' use was lifted by the MTO. It's supposed to be resistant to rutting and cheaper to lay than concrete, so we may see it as alternative to concrete pads/concrete surface courses for heavily trafficked areas.

I dropped onto streetview on lakeshore in Oakville today and noticed the road was concrete... never seen that in the GTA. Are there any other roads that use concrete?

That's actually still in Mississauga. Not exactly full fledged concrete roadways, but the intersection of Bloor and Aukland is finished with concrete along with the right turn lane from EB Dundas to SB Islington.
Mississauga also redid the left turn lane of WB Courtney Park to SB Kennedy with a concrete finish due to all the truck traffic causing rutting in the asphalt.