Quote:
Originally Posted by 0773|=\
There isn't enough traffic volumes to warrant it. I drove from Winnipeg to Kenora this weekend, and even then, as soon as you're past the exit for Steinbach, the traffic on the TCH drops off substantially. As much as I'd love to see it as a way to promote more unity in our country (quicker to get places), I don't see it happening. Maybe we should be looking at improvements to our cross-country passenger rail instead.
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That is true, but the Winnipeg-Kenora section gets very busy in the summer (especially on Fridays and Sundays) and there have been a number of serious accidents. I believe they announced that they were going to twin the road to Granite Lake (about halfway between the MB border and Kenora) and make "improvements" from there to Kenora. Of course, this leaves the small Manitoba section through the Whiteshell. I don't know if they have any plans to twin this part but they should: It's not that long and it will be really annoying driving out to the cabin to have a two-lane section in the middle of two divided highways.
Here are two related articles (from last summer):
<<OTTAWA - The Ontario government is looking at twinning the Trans Canada Highway between Kenora and the Manitoba border with money from its new infrastructure agreement with Ottawa.
The section of highway 17 - about 55 kilometres - is one of the most accident-prone stretches of road in the country. Highway 17 through northern Ontario is also one of the last remaining legs of the Trans Canada which is not a twinned and divided highway.
Regular twists and turns through Canadian shield rock give the highway poor sitelines and many accidents are caused by traffic passing on the single-lane road.
In the summer months it is also one of the busiest highways in the country with thousands of cottagers and tourists visiting the region for its vast lakes, fishing and recreational spots.
Ontario and Ottawa today signed a $6.2 billion infrastructure agreement under the Building Canada Fund and the Ontario government listed Highway 17 as one of its four priority projects for the money.
Earlier in the day, Winnipeg MP Steven Fletcher told the Free Press he has been working on the issue for about a year now and said “it is rather gratifying” to see it finally happening.
“This is obviously very important to a lot of people who use that section,” said Fletcher.
Since August 2006, at least eight people have died in fatal crashes on the highway and many others have been injured.>>
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/historic/32952244.html
<<OTTAWA -- Some of the most dangerous stretches of the Trans-Canada Highway in northwestern Ontario will be twinned under a new deal the province inked with the federal government Thursday.
The $6.2-billion Building Canada Fund agreement between Ottawa and Ontario listed upgrades to Highway 17 in northwestern Ontario as one of the four priority spending areas for the money, which lasts through to 2014.
Among the plans for Highway 17 -- listed in 2007 by the Canadian Automobile Association as one of the worst stretches of road in Ontario -- are engineering studies to look at how to twin all or part of the highway between Kenora and the Manitoba border.
Improvements will also be made to Highway 17 between Kenora and Thunder Bay. Since August 2006, at least eight people have died in fatal crashes on that section of highway.
Thousands of Manitobans travel the highway each summer to take advantage of the recreational opportunities in northwestern Ontario.
Manitoba senior minister Vic Toews said Ontario has gone beyond its initial pledge to just do a feasibility study on twinning the highway and is commissioning engineers to figure out how to make it happen.
"This is the first time the highways in northwestern Ontario have been mentioned as a priority (for Ontario)," Toews said.
In the summer months, as many Manitobans use the highway as Ontarians.
"I'm looking around the parking lot here and more than half the licence plates are from Manitoba," Toews said.
Residents and politicians in the region have been lobbying Queen's Park to twin the 550-km stretch of highway between Kenora and Thunder Bay for years.
According to a 2006 petition led by Ontario MPP David Orazietti, there are an average of 488 accidents on Highway 17 each year, resulting in 839 injuries and 31 deaths.
The highway is part of the Trans-Canada system but is among the only parts of the nationwide highway that is not a four-lane divided road. In Manitoba, the only remaining section of the Trans-Canada that isn't four lanes wide is the 20 or so kilometres between Falcon Lake and the Ontario border.>>
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/historic/32971209.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by 0773|=\
I'd say 17 could be a freeway standard from Ottawa all the way to North Bay, possibly even all the way to Sudbury. From there to Manitoba, I'd say make it a three-lane alternating centre-lane solution. If you put any interchanges along the three-lane section, make sure the overpass is built to accommodate a twinned highway in the future... See how much traffic comes first, and plan ahead.
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The problem with a center lane is that it can become a "suicide lane" even if only one direction is supposed to be using it at any one time.