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Windsor-Essex Parkway
Conceptual images of the Windsor-Essex Parkway.
http://www.weparkway.ca/interactivem...atchetteRd.jpg http://www.weparkway.ca/interactivemap/C12_MaldenRd.jpg http://www.weparkway.ca/interactivem...B8_Pulford.jpg http://www.weparkway.ca/interactivem...Roundabout.jpg Video Website: http://www.weparkway.ca/ The Windsor-Essex Parkway will extend Highway 401 to a new bridge border crossing with the USA, creating a full freeway link in Windsor. Construction starts later this year. Prep work begun in 2010. |
They've already demolished dozens of buildings along Huron Church Road for this.
Good to see Ontario is building a highway right to the border only 60 years after they should have. |
Very cool interactive map: http://www.weparkway.ca/interactivem...activeMap.html
It will be the first major highway project in Ontario since the 407 and 416 were completed in the late 1990's. |
I really like some of the landscaping and configuration decisions they've made. Words cannot express how badly I want something like this in London.
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New Windsor-Essex Parkway signs erected along Highway 3 in Windsor:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5294/...8d83b47c_b.jpg http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3...4f6c331bdb.jpg Propaganda much? :haha: |
Not as bad as the Economic Action Plan signs stuck to every single thing the federal government owns. They tuned up an old clock at our tax building a year ago and the sign has been in front of it ever since.
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I love the land bridges. Hopefully this is something that gets incorporated in the majority of Hwy projects from now on.
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This project has been needed for such a long time now, It's great to see it about to start soon
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I agree this project is long overdue. My father is a truck driver, has been for almost over 35 years and he put it like this. You can drive from Quebec almost all the way to Windsor without having to stop, but the last 6km or so leading up to the bridge you hit something like 15 traffic lights on the 401, so it's definately a bottleneck that needs to be addressed.
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^ You can drive from Quebec City all the way to Mexico without stopping at all (except at 15 traffic lights in Windsor).
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How do you guys feel knowing that the province is plowing ahead with this much needed project, but Michigan has YET to come on board and approve the bridge project, meaning as of now it is the road to nowhere.
I know the newly elected Michigan state governer (Snyder) though he's republican (democrats were previously pushing the bridge) he seems to be on board, but Matty Maroun has alot of Michigan politicians in his pocket. If you look at the bridge renderings did you ever notice people going over this yet to be built bridge to the states, the first thing they will see is Zug Island on the states side.... Great first impression. source: some guy on flickr http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...a2c1d853_b.jpg |
The new goverment bridge will eventually be built at some point in time, everyone of importance is behind this project except the owners of the Ambassador Bridge and some politicians in Michigan that were paid off with political donations by them.
Windsor will not permit the Ambassador Bridge to be twinned, which would rip up historical neighbourhoods and permit thousands of belching trucks to continue to clog major city streets. |
If Michigan keeps dawdling, they will eventually be trumped by Washington. The only reason this hasn't passed in Michigan yet is because of Moroun (the slumlord owner of the Ambassador Bridge).
It is not a pleasant sight but there's no real alternative. |
The view won't be any worse than driving through Hamilton with their steel mills, not great, but like Blitz said, there's not really any alternative
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Myself I haven't really gone down to Indian road to see how many houses have been affected by this Bridge vs. City stalemate. From what I gather in the media it seems a pretty sizeable chunk of that street or area is laying derelict. It's a crying shame and I feel sorry for the residents of Indian Rd. for being caught up in the middle of it all, but it seems that's where the line was drawn and the trenches dug. I'm sure residents of that street don't feel the same, but I emplore the city for standing up to the Ambassador Bridge Company.
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The vast majority of those homes were/are used as student rentals...there are a handful of long-term residents but not many. Moroun is the ultimate real-life 'Mr. Burns'. He doesn't care about any of the residents, he has ruined entire neighbourhoods on both sides of the border, and he's only concerned about making money. Lots of people in Windsor are just hoping he dies soon but when that happens, everything will just be transferred to his idiot son (who is just as bad).
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Hate to rain on the parade but numbers for cross border traffic between Michigan and Ontario are down 50% since 9/11. Does that really warrant a new bridge?
BTW I am in favor of the new bridge. It won't cost Michigan taxpayers a dime and will create thousands of jobs. Just thought I'd stir the pot a little :D |
You sound like those misleading commercials that Moroun keeps playing. Border traffic is only going to rise in the future and the Ambassador Bridge is 83 years old.
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I just wanted to play devil's advocate. There are 2 sides to this story. One thing I didn't like from Canada's side was their comment about how there should be laws and regulations against the commercials Moroun has been running. That scares me. No matter how much you hate Moroun, he has the right to voice his own opinion. Is that really how it is in Canada? The government has so much control over the media that it would be against the law for commercials like Moroun's to be aired? Its true the Ambassador bridge is very old though. And Canada has refused to let another span be built by Moroun so the only available option is the NITC. Which wil also connect nicely with the W/E Parkway. So I'm all for it :yes: |
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I've never heard such a thing in Canadian media about the government saying anything about laws and regulations on commercials pertaining to the Ambassador Bridge Company.... The Canadian government, I think, doesn't feel it's appropriate any longer for a private company to hold the reigns on an international border crossing. This company is starting to reek, and it's felt like they have held the public hostage. The bridge needs to be replaced and for the sake of streamlining things the government doesn't want a new bridge running through the city anymore. It's a shame this drama has dragged out for as long as it has, lord knows the region, both here and in Detroit could use the jobs and infrastructure upgrade. |
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http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Mich...991/story.html |
Some informational bullets from the www.infrastructureontario.com website
About the project: The Windsor-Essex Parkway is the Ontario access road portion of the proposed new Windsor-Detroit border transportation system to improve the flow of goods and people between Canada’s and the United States’ busiest gateway. Upon completion, Ontario’s Highway 401 will for the first time be directly connected to the United States interstate system. The Parkway will travel west from Highway 401 in southwest Ontario, Canada, through the City of Windsor and connect to a Canadian inspection plaza, a new international bridge, a Michigan inspection plaza and Interstate 75 in Michigan, USA. The Windsor-Essex Parkway is the first transportation project in Ontario to be delivered using alternative financing and procurement. The Parkway will be publicly owned and controlled. The Recommended Plan for the Windsor-Essex Parkway is documented in the Detroit River International Crossing Environmental Assessment Report, which was reviewed and approved under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act. Project Features: The six-lane, 11 kilometre freeway and four-lane service road will have 11 covered tunnels, be built below grade, and have earth berms and noise barriers in place to minimize community impact. The tunnels range from 120 metres to 240 metres long, totaling 1.8 kilometres. The Parkway will include more than 300 acres of green space and 20 kilometres of recreational trail. Full construction of the Parkway will begin in summer 2011 and it will be open to traffic in fall 2014. Community and Green Features: The 20-kilometres of recreational trails will connect communities and promote healthy living. The Parkway’s 300-acres of green space will integrate with local parks and other protected natural areas to create a green corridor that supports viable natural communities, links existing natural areas and buffers surrounding communities from the new freeway. Species at risk and their habitats are protected for the long-term and where necessary, they will be relocated to areas that are restored, enhanced or created and protected. Economic Benefits: At the peak of construction, WEMG, the winning bidder, estimates that between 1,200 to 1,300 workers will be on the Parkway site daily. WEMG partnerships with local business owners and institutions will ensure the success of the project during its design, construction and operation; these partnerships will help to strengthen the local economy, and create jobs and training. Much of the Parkway’s construction and maintenance work will be performed by local labour force and local subcontractors. WEMG estimates it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on local labour, local supplies, and materials over the lifespan of the project. I took the liberty of just stitching together the interactive map from the www.weparkway.ca website for the sake of just making things easier to visual within the thread, and I was bored. :P http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...sexParkway.jpg |
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Link doesn't work |
The part about traffic decline isn't misleading but those commercials were full of other quotes from various sources (including the federal government) that were taken completely out of context. The average American watching them that hasn't followed this issue could easily be influenced. I have no problem with the government clamping down on advertising that is purposely trying to mislead people.
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Looks like they're moving forward with this thing pretty aggressively.
Residential demolition: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6121/...e74c75a3_b.jpg Demolition of an outlet mall: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2289/...06307ac3_b.jpg |
Interesting article in the Windsor Star today:
----- Parkway project will be job bonanza Economic impact to be felt right away By Chris Vander Doelen, The Windsor Star August 12, 2011 Every construction company for 100 kilometres has been holding their collective breaths waiting for this moment: the kickoff to the biggest stimulus project of them all, the job that's going to put everybody in the industry back to work all at once. Without fanfare, construction of the $1.6-billion Windsor Essex Parkway quietly began this week when utility crews started moving lines and demolition crews moved in to begin bulldozing 181 buildings still in the way of the last missing link in Highway 401 from Quebec to the U.S. Border. Among the buildings to come down soon will be a gas station and other buildings at the corner of Howard Avenue and Highway 3. Job one is making room for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, expected within weeks. The parkway is the project "everybody's trying to get a piece of," says Jim Lyons, executive director of the Windsor Heavy Construction Association. "As this project gears up there will be huge demand for labour." Anticipating the crunch, the City of Windsor has deliberately cleared its books of all municipal construction projects for the next few months, Lyons says. There will be no roads, sewers or other civic projects tendered. City planners realized every contractor in the region will be vying for some of the 60 to 80 sub-contract packages that will be put out to tender for the massive job, one of the biggest in Canada this year. "It's one of the largest infrastructure projects underway in the country - certainly in the top 10 for size and scope," says Garfield Dales, the most senior provincial bureaucrat overseeing the parkway project. "All we've been hearing for months now is, 'when are shovels going to be in the ground? When does construction start?" Dales said at a recent open house for the project. "There is a real sense of people wanting to see this project start." The economic impact of the project on the region will be huge, and it will be immediate, Dales added this week by e-mail. "It's a significant economic opportunity for local workers, suppliers and contractors." By the end of this year, Windsor is expected to have the fastgrowing metropolitan economy in the country, Dales said, quoting a prediction made earlier this year by the Conference Board of Canada. While GDP (Gross Domestic Product") growth for the region was 3.5 per cent last year, it is expected to be 3.9 per cent this year, receiving a "big boost when the $1.6-billion Windsor-Essex Parkway begins later this year." How big? "Well, do the math," Lyons says. "One-point-six billion, divided by 80. Those are big packages for everybody to bid on," he says of his members, some of whom have been dying for work in recent years. About 20 per cent of work has already been awarded, according to Cindy Prince, communications director for Parkway Infrastructure Contractors, (PIC), the consortium building the project. Among the local companies already doing work are Facca Inc., which two years ago started building the two lonely overpasses which have been sitting forlornly in the middle of a field near Howard Avenue since last fall. Amico Infrastructures of Windsor has been awarded nearly 10 per cent of the overall work, in excavation and asphalt; demolition experts Jones Group Inc. of Windsor will be knocking down most of the homes and other remaining structures. In fact the job is bigger than the Jones group can handle alone - so they've subcontracted competitors Gagnon Demolition and Salvage, also of Windsor, to help. "They're going like bandits right now," Lyons said of the two. This week Lepara Infrastructures Inc. started pulling up old parking lots and driveways along the route. Local landscapers Siefker Inc. have been hired for property maintenance; Black and MacDonald have been hired for much of the vast electrical work to be done on the site. Hundreds of other contractors are in the process of filling out forms online to pre-qualify for the rest of the contracts. Each has to present proof of its financial wherewithal before they will even be considered. About 400 new jobs have already been created by the parkway, Prince estimates, the first of about 3,500 people who will eventually have a hand in the project, working 12,000 jobyears between them. At least 38 people employed by PIC or the Windsor Essex Mobility Group have bought homes or leased apartments in the area; hundreds more are expected to follow as hiring begins for such specialties as bridge design. Area hotels and eateries are expected to be busier as out-of-town consultants from sound attenuation experts to pump salesmen start flooding in: the entire excavation will be designed to stay dry even through a 100-year storm. As recently as 2007, building a flat, six-lane concrete 400 series highway through empty farmland cost about $19 million per kilometre to build, according to estimates prepared by the Ontario government - or more than $20 million today, given inflation in fuel costs alone. The cost of building the below-grade Windsor-Essex Parkway, by comparison, will be about $133 million per km, or more than six times the cost of a surface road. And that, Dales says, is the main reason the parkway will be by far the most expensive highway project in Ontario history and one of the most expensive ever built in Canada. It won't be finished until September 2014, and along the way area residents can expect some major disruptions to their commuting routines, Lyons warns. "There are going to be some inconveniences," Prince agreed. "There always are during construction." Chief among them will be the hammering associated with driving 5,600 steel pilings down to bedrock to support the 11 bridges and 11 tunnels that are the most complex components of the project. Each structure will require three to six weeks of pile driving, all of which will be done during daylight hours. "We'll try not to make that a long steady month" of pile driving, Pierce says. Instead the hammering will be staggered, in some cases spaced it out over as much as six months per structure. For construction geeks, Lyons advises checking out the parkway's official website at www.weparkway.ca, paying careful attention to the video flyovers. "They're great - they you give you a helicopter view," Lyons said Thursday. "You can see exactly all the changes their making to the existing landscape - and it's incredible." And don't expect to see the project ramp up slowly, he said. "I'm told they plan to hit it at all areas, all the time," he says of the 12-km-long project. "They don't have time to stage it - they're doing it all at once." ----- Link: http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Park...672/story.html |
They're doing a three-part series on it. Another huge article in the paper today.
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Groundbreaking ceremony was today.
I will laugh my head off if a new crossing deal isn't reached by the time the freeway's done. The "highway to nowhere" will then become a reality. :P |
If the new crossing isn't built right away, then the parkway will just exit onto Huron Church Rd and continue on to the Ambassador Bridge.
A road to nowhere, it will never be. |
Courtesey of http://www.weparkway.ca
http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/.../5275235-1.jpg http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...c2/5275232.jpg http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...c2/5275229.jpg http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...c2/5275227.jpg http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...c2/5275233.jpg http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...c2/5275226.jpg Demolition of the North Talbot bridge is where things started. courtesey of www.windsorite.ca http://windsorite.ca/wp-content/uplo...BD-620x431.jpg http://windsorite.ca/wp-content/uplo...01-620x419.jpg http://windsorite.ca/wp-content/uplo...18-620x424.jpg http://windsorite.ca/wp-content/uplo...17-620x413.jpg This will be great to watch the progress. |
It definitely won't be a road to nowhere - this will take traffic off Huron Church Road for 8 km (I don't know why they keep calling it the W-E Parkway since it's just an extension of Highway 401). It will also have a ramp to Ojibway Parkway and E.C. Row Expressway therefore greatly improving traffic flow for commuters in the west and south sides of the city.
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It's called the Windsor-Essex Parkway because it's a completely different design from the rest of the 401, plus it's an actual parkway, not just a highway.
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Upon completion the 401 will now have 3 other names: -Macdonald-Cartier Freeway (entire length) -Highway of Heroes (Highway 404/DVP to Trenton) -Windsor-Essex Parkway (US border to Highway 3) Enough already? This is getting out of hand. The project could have been called the Windsor-Essex Parkway, but it shouldn't be named as such in my opinion. |
I'v always understood that a parkway was a highway surrounded by parkland, not in the median
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north 42, but what about Lauzon Parkway on Windsor's east side? Around here it just seems to mean a road with a speed limit of 70km/h or more.
They should just just call the whole damn thing "Highway 401" and while they're at it, designate the EC Row Expressway with an actual provincial highway number like every other expressway in Ontario, and improve the signage there up to provincial standards. |
EC Row isn't owned by the province. I can't get a number, unless Windsor gives it one, and I bet the MTO would oppose that.
Signage should be improved regardless. There should be some sort of provincial programme to help the medium cities like Windsor improve their signage, especially when the city is a gateway to the country. |
Hmmm, I thought it still had a 'secret number' depsite the fact that the province dumped responsibility for it.
Canada's mid-sized cities would have much better freeway systems if they were in the U.S...our highways are embarrasing compared to theirs. Then there are cities like London that don't even have anything that so obviously need something! |
Yeah, i don't really get why Lauzon parkway is called a parkway, to me it's just a regular road, definately not a highway.
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It is surprising that London never built an expressway, I can't even imagine not having the E C Row Expressway to get across Windsor. It must be frustrating for Londoners to deal with.
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Basically our municipal government likes to act like London's a small town when in reality it's actually a sizable city. At one point, the province wanted to build Highway 402 in the city's north, providing a last ditch effort to get a freeway in London and they would have paid for practically the whole thing. When London said no to this too, they pretty much said screw you and routed the 402 way off to the city's south and had it wind it's way around London towards Sarnia. London is the largest city in North America not to have a freeway to serve local traffic. Even Winnipeg has us beat! This project in Windsor should have been done at least 50 years ago. In addition, it's weird how the E.C. Row and 401 never connected in the first place. At least this project will fix that. |
Our expressway was never intended to carry international traffic, it was built primarily for city and commuter traffic
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^ and it's nowhere close to being up to proper highway standards, some parts of it are a death trap.
When London was bickering about where to build the highway, the province or feds should have just gone over their heads and built it where they wanted. |
I agree that E C Row's design is flawed, with on and off ramps way too close to eachother, but I'm glad that we have one.
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A few notable tricky spots on the expressway are the Dougall - Howard exchange corridor, there's soo many on ramps off ramps etc in a tight area, mixed with hills and some blind spots.
Probably the other tricky spot would be exiting the expressway @ Lauzon Parkway trying to get immediately over to the north service road so you can get to Jefferson because Jefferson's expressway exchange is flawed. There is a big lack of consistency in Windsor's expressway which does nothing but confuse drivers, both from out of town and local. Combine this with some of the terrible driving on the part of Windsor drivers and it's chaos at times. |
...and to think that the province originally wanted to use it as the international truck route!
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^ Thank god our mayor went to battle over that cheap ass "fix"! That would have destroyed our city.
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Interesting read from the Windsor Star about Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun
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What an a$$hole. |
That Parkway is about to kick into high gear. It would be great to get some photos of the construction on here considering it's one of the largest engineering projects in Canada over the next few years. The only problem is it's tough to get a good vantage point to get the shots.
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Once some overpasses get built, they would make the perfect places to take pictures. Although it would be nice to see some completed/underway projects like 401/dougal and 401/3 interchanges. |
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