Highways in Canada

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Let’s say it straight, loud and clear:
New Brunswick isn’t bustling.

Traffic is busy on NB-1 from SJ to Moncton.
Traffic is busy on NB-2 from Freddy to Moncton and on to NS
Traffic is busy on NB-15 from Moncton to Shediac.

Other sections of divided highway tend to be quieter.

[Dengler Avenue]

Traffic is busy on NB-15 from Moncton to Shediac.

Actually I take back my comment.
I just remember that the super-2 portion of N.B.-15 (~Robichaud) can get busy in summer too.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Actually I take back my comment.
I just remember that the super-2 portion of N.B.-15 (~Robichaud) can get busy in summer too.

Curious if there is a long term plan to finish the twinning of NB-15 from the freeway end-point to TCH-16 in Port Elgin; as well as remove that last annoying traffic light in Moncton at Botsford and NB-15?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Ozabald

Curious if there is a long term plan to finish the twinning of NB-15 from the freeway end-point to TCH-16 in Port Elgin; as well as remove that last annoying traffic light in Moncton at Botsford and NB-15?

Depends on whether or not Parsimonious Higgs remains in power.

Higgs cancelled federally approved funding for dividing the highway across the Cocagne River, and there are no current plans to reinstate this.

There were never any plans to divide NB-11 north of Bouctouche.

As for NB-15, the overpasses over the "super two" section of the highway east to Cap Pele were built "double wide" to facilitate eventual twinning, but there are no current plans to do so. Cap Pele is now an exurb of Moncton and I think twinning could be justified.

As for the Botsford Street intersection with Wheeler Blvd., I think I will be long since dead before anything happens there. It is admittedly a very difficult itersection to upgrade, what with the adjacent railway overpass.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Depends on whether or not Parsimonious Higgs remains in power.

Higgs cancelled federally approved funding for dividing the highway across the Cocagne River, and there are no current plans to reinstate this.

There were never any plans to divide NB-11 north of Bouctouche.

As for NB-15, the overpasses over the "super two" section of the highway east to Cap Pele were built "double wide" to facilitate eventual twinning, but there are no current plans to do so. Cap Pele is now an exurb of Moncton and I think twinning could be justified.

As for the Botsford Street intersection with Wheeler Blvd., I think I will be long since dead before anything happens there. It is admittedly a very difficult itersection to upgrade, what with the adjacent railway overpass.

Cap Pele is a tiny collection of very large lot rural houses. The fact that's considered "justification" for a twinned freeway is such a hilariously NB perspective on highway justification.

I'd love to see what Ontario looked like with New Brunswick style freeway politics - We'd have the densest freeway network on the planet!

The only real significant gap I see in the New Brunswick highway network, which as a whole is generally severely overbuilt and 11/10 already, is NB-8 crossing the Saint John river in Fredericton and the odd little jog it does. Even then, fixing that just involves a bit of an interchange reconfiguration.

[Dengler Avenue]

The only real significant gap I see in the New Brunswick highway network, which as a whole is generally severely overbuilt and 11/10 already, is NB-8 crossing the Saint John river in Fredericton and the odd little jog it does. Even then, fixing that just involves a bit of an interchange reconfiguration.

Yea it looks like an interchange is missing there.

N.B.-11 Miramichi bridge has 10K+ AADT though.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Yea it looks like an interchange is missing there.

N.B.-11 Miramichi bridge has 10K+ AADT though.

do you want to know how many 2-lane highways in Ontario have 10+k AADTs and have no active plans for expansion? Heck, I could give you a decent list of 20k AADT highways that are 2-lanes with stoplights (yet alone a super-2 expressway).

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

do you want to know how many 2-lane highways in Ontario have 10+k AADTs and have no active plans for expansion? Heck, I could give you a decent list of 20k AADT highways that are 2-lanes with stoplights (yet alone a super-2 expressway).

Lol we’re gonna end up beating the dead horse, so here we go~
For the 20K one, I’ve heard that 26 between Owen Sound Barrie is one of them. That one is pretty much on a backburner (even though there’s a draft on its upgrade, which IMO should be followed through on).
For the 10K one, 9 between Orangeville and King City comes to mind. That roadway should be widened.

I’m one of those that think that, just because it’s a certain way, it doesn’t always mean that it should be or stay that way.

That Big towns are only connected by 2-lane roadways isn’t exactly normal.
It does annoy me that Old 24 between Cambridge and Guelph only has 2 lanes, for example. (Okay, 24 between Cambridge and Brantford, for that matter too.)

[Innsertnamehere]

Off the top of my head..

7/8 stratford-kitchener
12 around Beaverton
10 north of Orangeville
9 between Orangeville and the 400
6 between Jarvis and Caledonia
6 bypass around Hamilton
5/8 between Cambridge and Waterdown
26 south of Collingwood
17 north of Arnprior
24 between Brantford and Cambridge
85 south of Elmira
89 between Shelbourne and the 400
48 for it's entire length
7 around Lindsay
6 between Guelph and Fergus


And those are just the provincial roads.. I could create another list just as long for municipally owned rural highways with similar volumes.

[MonctonRad]

I'm a strong believer that AADT should not be the be-all and end-all in terms of justification of highway design. I think highway safety is important too.

Regarding Cap Pele, NB-15 here can be very busy in the summertime (what with all the crazed tourists jockeying for position on the way to the Confederation Bridge to PEI). This is additive to the exurban commuter volume. NB is also a snowy province in the wintertime, and slushy and slippery road conditions can be mitigated by judicious placement of divided highways even in areas of moderate traffic volumes. I've been involved in looking after enough multi-trauma MVAs to have become allergic to wintertime road travel. Too much carnage.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Off the top of my head..

7/8 stratford-kitchener
12 around Beaverton
10 north of Orangeville
9 between Orangeville and the 400
6 between Jarvis and Caledonia
6 bypass around Hamilton
5/8 between Cambridge and Waterdown
26 south of Collingwood
17 north of Arnprior
24 between Brantford and Cambridge
85 south of Elmira
89 between Shelbourne and the 400
48 for it's entire length
7 around Lindsay


And those are just the provincial roads.. I could create another list just as long for municipally owned rural highways with similar volumes.

IMO these should all be upgraded one way or the other if ever, and whenever, funding becomes available.
In the states, these roads are usually 4 lanes, usually. (Michigan comes to mind, I think?)

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I'm a strong believer that AADT should not be the be-all and end-all in terms of justification of highway design. I think highway safety is important too.

Regarding Cap Pele, NB-15 here can be very busy in the summertime (what with all the crazed tourists jockeying for position on the way to the Confederation Bridge to PEI). This is additive to the exurban commuter volume. NB is also a snowy province in the wintertime, and slushy and slippery road conditions can be mitigated by judicious placement of divided highways even in areas of moderate traffic volumes. I've been involved in looking after enough multi-trauma MVAs to have become allergic to wintertime road travel. Too much carnage.

I don't disagree - and of course a grade-separated, dual carriageway highway will always be safer and more efficient.

I guess my complaint more so is how the Maritime provinces hash out complaints about needing expressways to these tiny communities on relatively low traffic, already very well built highways (Cap Pele is already fully grade separated and extremely well built, for example), while central Canada regularly sees similar roads with higher traffic levels in similar climates go decades without even a musing of safety or capacity improvements. It's just funny to watch from an Ontario perspective, where people sit in traffic on a 2-lane road between two metros of over half a million which are only 50km apart for decades wishing for a 4-laning (I mean, it's hard to believe this is the main road from Hamilton to Kitchener), while Nova Scotia is throwing funding at building an expressway to little fishing villages along the coast

[Dengler Avenue]

It's just funny to watch from an Ontario perspective, where people sit in traffic on a 2-lane road between two metros of over half a million people for decades wishing for a 4-laning, while Nova Scotia is throwing funding at building an expressway to a little fishing village of 5,000.

I imagine you have ON-7 between KW and Guelph in mind?
Yea from time to time, politics seems at play in stuff like this.
It baffles my mind, too, because we aren’t as tree-hugging as B.C. either.

It’s the same thing in Quebec too: MTQ’s finally upgrading 158 west of Joliette, A50 here and there, and A55 through Bécancour, and extending A35.

[sonysnob]

Drone shot of Highway 17 crossing the Little Pic River west of Marathon, Ontario:


http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/hwy_17_images/17_DJI_0059_24x16.jpg

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

Drone shot of Highway 17 crossing the Little Pic River west of Marathon, Ontario:


http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/hwy_17_images/17_DJI_0059_24x16.jpg

LOVE it!

Neys Provincial Park is right there along with a big beautiful beach. In the distance in the photo you can see part of Pic Island. A couple of years ago I camped there and swam in the lake. It was quite a bit warmer where the river goes into the lake. The hiking trails there are great as well.

[Vantage]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

Drone shot of Highway 17 crossing the Little Pic River west of Marathon, Ontario:


http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/hwy_17_images/17_DJI_0059_24x16.jpg

Just drove over that bridge a few weeks ago going from London, ON to Port Coquitlam, BC. Spent the night nearby in Terrace Bay.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

Drone shot of Highway 17 crossing the Little Pic River west of Marathon, Ontario:


http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/hwy_17_images/17_DJI_0059_24x16.jpg

I notice a concrete wall under the abutment of west approach. Is that a retaining wall for the abutment?

With significant elevational difference on both sides of the river, that structure’s an engineering marvel.

[sonysnob]

^ I'm honestly not sure what that retaining wall would be for. It must be a retaining wall to protect the abutment, but it's surprising that it's so far away from either the pier or the abutment. Unless it's a retaining wall or protection for some other utility that uses the Highway 17 corridor or something.

[madog222]

Stopping rockfall that would otherwise impact the pier would be my guess.

[Loco101]

Something else I remember and shown in the photo are the lines going across the Eastbound lane. I believe they are there as an indicator/reminder of watching your speed when going down the hill and that there is a curve. I don't know of anywhere else where that exists.