The 401

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

It’s a made up contract that serves no other purpose than giving Ford a photo
-op.

I understand that its politics and politicians of all political stripes do so.

Defending practices such as this seems stupid to me. Haljackey’s response seemed to defend Ford’s politicking. I thought that was kind of a dumb thing to defend so I wrote my response. I even waited a day before I responded.

I’ve met Haljackey in real life, I have no qualm with him. I thought his response totally missed the plot. I think Haljackey’s responses often miss the plot, so I responded.

It’s a discussion forum, I’m allowed to respond.

Yep its all good, no offense taken.

I'm no fan of Douggie Ford anyway. Some of my posts are actually intended to miss the plot

[MolsonExport]

I've noticed lately that the 401 is very often a parking lot through Guelph. Those damned cones are alongside the road, but there doesn't seem to be any roadwork. It also seems far enough from the overpass replacement work occurring along the Toronto-London stretch.

God I hate these things:


Or is it just that the bottleneck has been moved farther down the road (from where it previously was in Milton)?

[Innsertnamehere]

401 is getting repaved around Highway 6 this year.

[Dengler Avenue]

Mainly, the crossfall needs to be redone to comply with more stringent tolerance.

[sonysnob]

^ Where did you hear that the crossfall was being corrected?

The 401 is being resurfaced because the pavement is shot. There might be some minor adjustments here and there, but it's just a straight up shave and pave project.

[MolsonExport]

Ford government studied, shelved Hwy. 401 tunnel research in 2021

The Ford government studied tunneling under Highway 401 to relieve congestion but quietly shelved the unreleased work in 2021, years before Premier Doug Ford announced his controversial plan for the mega-project in 2024.

Those findings are in documents obtained by CBC News through a freedom of information request. The briefing notes for senior government officials, dated Feb. 19, 2025, lay out the history of work on the controversial proposal that Ford first floated publicly last year.

"The project was paused in late 2021 based on government direction," civil servants wrote in the briefing note.

Experts say proposed tunnel could cost $100B

[MolsonExport]

DoFo is adamant that the tunnel will be built.

• Video Link

You could build a billion bike lanes for the price of this boondoggle. But bike lanes need to be taken out, right?

[905er]

all this talk about an underground tunnel, and meanwhile our highways are filthy!!! drive any where in the GTA and the amount of trash along the highways is just absurd. It's been noticeably bad post pandemic.. I can't recall the highways EVER looking so horrible. For a first world country, it sure is a total disgrace and the humans throwing trash out their car windows are disgusting.
That said.. the must get cleaned up.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by 905er

all this talk about an underground tunnel, and meanwhile our highways are filthy!!! drive any where in the GTA and the amount of trash along the highways is just absurd. It's been noticeably bad post pandemic.. I can't recall the highways EVER looking so horrible. For a first world country, it sure is a total disgrace and the humans throwing trash out their car windows are disgusting.
That said.. the must get cleaned up.

I can give things a pass for being messy once the snow melts and the winter is over, but yes things should be pretty cleaned up by now.

Send a message to your local MPP- maybe the MTO and Douggie too. Can't hurt.

Also maybe ask to post more littering fine signs, increase the fine and enforcement too

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

DoFo is adamant that the tunnel will be built.

You could build a billion bike lanes for the price of this boondoggle. But bike lanes need to be taken out, right?

I absolutely think more freeway capacity into the core is necessary and really there is no way to do that besides a tunnel. But why go directly under the 401. It seems unlikely it would be cut and cover anyway so if you are deep tunneling why not put it further south maybe around the route of the cancelled Crosstown Expressway continuing west to the 427 somewhere around Bloor. Shorter and cheaper route.

Ford obviously isn't proposing this but you could also make it EV and Electric bus only which could save ventilation costs.

[Dengler Avenue]

Ford obviously isn't proposing this but you could also make it EV and Electric bus only which could save ventilation costs.

The quality of drivers in this province makes this impossible. Someone’s gonna break the rules. O.P.P. GTA is simply too busy to enforce that. (Even the enforcement of HOV on the 401 through Mississauga is occasional.)

[acottawa]

There is a legitimate bottleneck between the 427 and the 409, where the through portion of the highway is effectively half the size. A tunnel may not be the most effective solution, but the airport may prevent something elevated.

An underground crosstown freeway would be phenomenally expensive.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by haljackey

I can give things a pass for being messy once the snow melts and the winter is over, but yes things should be pretty cleaned up by now.

Send a message to your local MPP- maybe the MTO and Douggie too. Can't hurt.

Also maybe ask to post more littering fine signs, increase the fine and enforcement too

They literally don't care. As I wrote in this thread months ago, the response I received years ago in an email from the transportation minister at the time (early in the first DoFo tenure) was that the government doesn't clean garbage off the freeways unless it's a hazard. The Toronto Star's "The Fixer" got the same message when he approached the government about the issue a year or two ago.

[sonysnob]

The MTO has tendered a contract for "enhanced litter cleanup" for several GTA highways this fall.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

I absolutely think more freeway capacity into the core is necessary and really there is no way to do that besides a tunnel. But why go directly under the 401. It seems unlikely it would be cut and cover anyway so if you are deep tunneling why not put it further south maybe around the route of the cancelled Crosstown Expressway continuing west to the 427 somewhere around Bloor. Shorter and cheaper route.

Ford obviously isn't proposing this but you could also make it EV and Electric bus only which could save ventilation costs.

we have no idea on how it would be built. We have literally seen 0 details - we have no idea of size, length, alignment, etc.

That said, I do agree that a southern alignment would probably work well and if designed right could actually save a lot of money.. but good luck politically with it. Any attempt to build a highway south of the 401 is going to have some pretty extreme local opposition, especially if you want to put in any off-ramps.

A crosstown tunnel would be wildly expensive but not as much as the media is portraying. WestConnex in Sydney Australia is a recently completed 22km underground expressway with a project cost of $21 billion AUD ($19 billion CAD). A 22-km tunnel would roughly get you from the 427 to the 404 across the busiest part of the 401. This is a similar project scale in terms of cost as the Ontario Line - a big project, but not a shockingly large one.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

The MTO has tendered a contract for "enhanced litter cleanup" for several GTA highways this fall.

https://www.raqs.merx.com/public/bulletin/contractView.jsf?id=736372351

[Gresto]

Wonderful news! Unfortunately, it needs to be an ongoing initiative, not a one-time deal. Litter accumulates continually. The government should contract a company to clean freeway-adjacent areas on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Not all of the garbage is the fault of selfish litterbugs. Some of it originates on blustery days when trash is blown loose from bins and elsewhere, and accumulates against fences and in shrubbery.

[sonysnob]

The area maintenance contractors who maintain our highways on behalf of the province do pick up litter. They often do their most intense work in the springtime after the snow flies. But it's an uphill battle.

I'd like to see crews run a weedwacker along some of the concrete median barriers and steel beam guiderail more often then the do as well. Though, I did see a maintenance staff member with a weedwacker clearing weeds on the top of the concrete median barrier at the Harwood overpass earlier this week.

[MolsonExport]

As bad as it gets, you ain't seen litter until you've travelled the Interstate system, especially in nearby Michigan. Tire blowouts everywhere you look.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

The area maintenance contractors who maintain our highways on behalf of the province do pick up litter. They often do their most intense work in the springtime after the snow flies.

If what they do is called picking up litter, I have a different understanding of the term. In recent years, there has been no - or extremely inadequate - litter pick-up in my area, as far as I can tell. At the 401 exits in central Toronto, they mow the cloverleaf and ramp lawns, shredding the garbage within into a million pieces. What the hell use is that?!