Paving has started on the extension. Went around the barriers to check out the progress along Huron today, this is looking north. Huron needs another layer of asphalt through the intersection and 2 layers to the west of the intersection and it can open back up.
That's quite the ditch on both sides. I was reading that the plan was to make it easy to twin the road in the future. Guess the opposite lanes will be pretty far away, or else they may need to redo one of the ditches.
The right of way between Oxford an Huron is along the east side of the road, so I imagine the same is for this new stretch as well. That stretch doesn't look like it's really had any kind of advance work done when it was built to facilitate easy expansion later and it doesn't look like this new piece has either from what you can see of it.
Which makes me wonder about the talked about widening of Clarke Rd, which I think was suppose to happen next year or shortly thereafter. Where is it going to be widened to? From Huron to the new intersection of Veterans? Will Clarke even really need to be widened in that stretch with all the Veterans traffic that used to go over to Clarke on Huron soon to just go right up Veterans? It makes sense that Clarke be widened from Fanshawe down to the new Veterans intersection, but if that was happening, then you would think that with Clarke feeding directly onto VMP, it would make sense for VMP to be 4 lanes as well, so why not have done that now with the new road being built from scratch? It doesn't even look to me like the new intersection of Clarke and VMP is being built to handle 4 lanes. So maybe the Clarke widening isn't actually going to happen for quite some time now?
In my mind I see Clarke widened from VMP to Fanshawe or Sunningdale. That would involve a new or twinned bridge over the Thames River, so no point starting any widening work until that new bridge is under construction.
Yeah, did some searching on the city website, and it looks like it's from the new VMP intersection north to Fanshawe. Which is funny because I specifically remember Mo Salih posting on his Facebook page that the widening was from just south of Huron. Perhaps he wasn't aware of the plans either.
Also read the construction notice for the VMP extension which said Huron would be closed for 6-8 weeks for this work. Next week will be 4 months since it closed lol.
You need to think like city planning and traffic/engineering dept. Why do things with vision when you can spend tax dollars again and again? The ineptitude of these depts has been shown over and over again over decades. Surely this cannot be an accident. I'm beginning to think it must be a deliberate plan to create future work for engineering firms and construction companies at the expense of London residents and taxpayers.
The list of infrastructure mistakes over the decades is far to long and embarrassing to be an accident.
You need to think like city planning and traffic/engineering dept. Why do things with vision when you can spend tax dollars again and again? The ineptitude of these depts has been shown over and over again over decades. Surely this cannot be an accident. I'm beginning to think it must be a deliberate plan to create future work for engineering firms and construction companies at the expense of London residents and taxpayers.
The list of infrastructure mistakes over the decades is far to long and embarrassing to be an accident.
Yes I agree. It's just like how the province spends billions working on that damn 401 highway from London to Windsor. Just extend it to 3 lanes already, they have done everything but.
Huron is all paved and lines painted. Not sure why they didn't open it up Friday, same as VMP south of Huron. They don't look too far away from finishing the paving on VMP at Clarke, so maybe they are waiting until that is ready and just opening it all together before closing Clarke to finish the realignment to VMP there.
Sadly contractor was digging up the NE corner pictured here yesterday. Something obviously went wrong with the grading and drainage and they were redoing it. Likely this means opening will be delayed into Nov now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Djeffery
Paving has started on the extension. Went around the barriers to check out the progress along Huron today, this is looking north. Huron needs another layer of asphalt through the intersection and 2 layers to the west of the intersection and it can open back up.
I think this might be opening next week. Caught a glimpse of a sign on Clarke saying Clarke would be closed starting Oct 27. I was turning right off Stronach Cres heading south so I didn’t get a full view of the sign to see what else it said
Clarke is now open north of Huron to the new intersection with VMP. Seemed like way more cars than you'd expect in November coming out of Fanshawe Conservation Area, so I imagine many missed that they had to turn left at the lights to go north lol.
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