Highways in Canada

[GreaterMontréal]

Wow, that looks like a gong show.

the Metropolitan is the only highway in Montréal where you can have a traffic jam at 2pm.

[Kokkei Mizu]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Curious; what's the widest portion of highway outside GTA?

The QEII in south Edmonton is 10 lanes (5 each direction) for a good distance. And right now they're extending the 10 lane configuration down to the city limits (probably about 5 km). The highway is also designed to have express lanes in the future once traffic warrants (bridges are built over extra-wide ROW) from Anthony Henday Drive to Leduc.

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by Kokkei Mizu

The QEII in south Edmonton is 10 lanes (5 each direction) for a good distance. And right now they're extending the 10 lane configuration down to the city limits (probably about 5 km). The highway is also designed to have express lanes in the future once traffic warrants (bridges are built over extra-wide ROW) from Anthony Henday Drive to Leduc.

Interesting that I didn't notice that on my way to and from the airport. Also cool that you guys have a three stack interchange with the Henday and QEII interchange.

[sonysnob]

New bridge under construction at Montreal Road, along Highway 401 in Kingston.

[feepa]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Interesting that I didn't notice that on my way to and from the airport. Also cool that you guys have a three stack interchange with the Henday and QEII interchange.

yellowhead west and henday is 3 stack too I believe

[sonysnob]

Ontario's first three lane roundabout on a provincial highway, located at the southern terminus of Highway 406 at East Main Street in Welland:

[Klazu]

That looks like one tight roundabout for three cars, not to mention trucks.

[Kokkei Mizu]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Interesting that I didn't notice that on my way to and from the airport. Also cool that you guys have a three stack interchange with the Henday and QEII interchange.

Yeah, we will have a second true stack interchange once the new interchange at Yellowhead East and AHD opens in 2016. The rest are so spaced out, they're more classified as a cloverstack.

Also, I just remembered that Hwy 63 across the Athabasca River in Fort McMurray is 10 lanes as well. And you could even technically call it an express/collector system as well. You can see some more information and a render here: http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/Con...tion/Fact_Sheet_Grant_MacEwan_Bridge.pdf


Here is Edmonton's second true stack interchange being built right now:


https://flic.kr/p/mEMQn8

If anyone's interested, you can check out the diagrams of all of the new AHD & Yellowhead upgrades being built right now. Pretty massive project.
http://northeastanthonyhenday.com/project-maps.php

[SteelTown]

Looks like on April 17th Premier Wynne will announce funding for construction of a new 17.8km four lane freeway from Highway 85 (KW Expressway) to Highway 6 (Hanlon Expressway) in Guelph. Construction is planned in 2016-17 and be completed in 2020-2021.

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Looks like on April 17th Premier Wynne will announce funding for construction of a new 17.8km four lane freeway from Highway 85 (KW Expressway) to Highway 6 (Hanlon Expressway) in Guelph. Construction is planned in 2016-17 and be completed in 2020-2021.

Awesome! I really wasn't expecting that to get done until the 2030s.

[Innsertnamehere]

Funding for that was announced 2 years ago, however it was in a really early stage. It's been in the "expansion" list on the southern Ontario highways program documents for a while.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

New bridge under construction at Montreal Road, along Highway 401 in Kingston.

That particular project is a huge undertaking. That section of highway in east Kingston (from Montreal Rd to Hwy 15) is currently being widened from 4 lanes to 6 lanes (thus completing the 6-laning throughout Kingston's urban area) and it involves having to build new highway lanes & ramps through hard rock and a swamp. One of the most environmentally challenging highway projects currently underway in Southern Ontario.

Next time you drive by, check out the new ramps that are currently being built. One of them has been blasted entirely through rock. Anyone driving on it in the future will be surrounded by 3 metre high walls of solid rock on both sides of the interchange. Better not run off the ramp

[FrAnKs]

Henri-IV Expressway, linking Upper-Town & Lower-town Québec city.



http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/actuali...aire-contre-lelargissement-dhenri-iv.php

[MolsonExport]

^nice

[middeljohn]

Does anyone know the freeway lane kms per capita for Canadian cities? I've been trying to find it but to no avail. I began calculating it for Toronto a few months ago, but there are so many variables (ie. Are the weave lanes on the QEW counted?) that I gave up after about an hour.

Ultimately what I want to see is how the kms/capita matches to metro densities. I did it for US cities before and there was a pretty significant correlation.

[1overcosc]

Just calculated Ottawa-Gatineau CMA. It's got 978 freeway lane kilometres and 1,305,210 people (both as of the summer of 2013). That comes down to 0.749 freeway lane kilometres per 1,000 people.

With a land area of 6,287.03 square kilometres that means a CMA-wide population density of 207.60 people per square kilometre.

Here's how I calculated 978 kilometres so you guys can check my accuracy:

[feepa]

Originally Posted by Kokkei Mizu

Yeah, we will have a second true stack interchange once the new interchange at Yellowhead East and AHD opens in 2016. The rest are so spaced out, they're more classified as a cloverstack.

Also, I just remembered that Hwy 63 across the Athabasca River in Fort McMurray is 10 lanes as well. And you could even technically call it an express/collector system as well. You can see some more information and a render here: http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/Con...tion/Fact_Sheet_Grant_MacEwan_Bridge.pdf


Here is Edmonton's second true stack interchange being built right now:


https://flic.kr/p/mEMQn8

If anyone's interested, you can check out the diagrams of all of the new AHD & Yellowhead upgrades being built right now. Pretty massive project.
http://northeastanthonyhenday.com/project-maps.php

this would be the third. The second one is Yellowhead West and Anthony Henday West.

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Just calculated Ottawa-Gatineau CMA. It's got 978 freeway lane kilometres and 1,305,210 people (both as of the summer of 2013). That comes down to 0.749 freeway lane kilometres per 1,000 people.

With a land area of 6,287.03 square kilometres that means a CMA-wide population density of 207.60 people per square kilometre.

Here's how I calculated 978 kilometres so you guys can check my accuracy:

Very interesting, although I think it's more accurate to use the urban area density, because what we're comparing is how the freeways affect the urban form of the city.

FYI, here's a comparison I did of US cities a couple months back on UT. Full page: http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthread....an-Sprawl-Compared-to-Other-Cities/page3

Here's some further analysis of the effect freeways have on population density and number of highrises. These are only for US cities as I couldn't find everything I needed to do the calculations for Canadian cities. If anyone has a source for Canadian cities' freeway lane miles please send it to me and I'll update it.

[Kokkei Mizu]

Originally Posted by feepa

this would be the third. The second one is Yellowhead West and Anthony Henday West.

That's classified as a cloverstack, not a true stack interchange.

[Tone]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Wow, that looks like a gong show.

I take that your not very familiar with Montréal or the Métropolitaine?