Highways in Canada

[niwell]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

It is a strange gap, narrow and getting more so every year. I am surprised it still exists. Ajax is a repelling name, but that cannot explain it completely.

The gap is protected by the Greenbelt. And hasn't change in a very long time. It seems odd now that a highway will go down it, but we are pretty restrictive with growth areas.

Ajax was actually named after the light cruiser HMS Ajax, a well renowned ship. Probably better than it deserves, though they have a nice monument on the lake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ajax_(22)



In any event nice pictures of the 407 expansion! One of the few that makes sense IMO.

[GreaterMontréal]

A-40 Rond-point de l'Acadie

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/woman-gives-birth-on-highway-40-1.1411924

[sonysnob]

I was up in Wasaga Beach over the weekend, and took some photos of construction along Hwy 400 north of Toronto:


The old steel beam median has been removed through the Hwy 88 intechange. Looks like some storm sewer work is taking place before they construct the new concrete barrier






Falsework is starting to take place for the construction of the new structure to carry the northbound lanes of Highway 400 over-top of Highway 11.


Ontario is big.

[Innsertnamehere]

The distance between Calgary and Winnipeg is almost 300km shorter than the distance between Barrie and Rainy River..

[Nicko999]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

Ontario is big.

Holy shit... I think 600 km is the max I've seen on those type of signs. 1774 km... that's the distance between Montreal and Northern Florida.

[Klazu]

1774km is crazy. The longest I have personally seen was 1221km from Port Augusta to Alice Springs throught the Australian Outback.

[swimmer_spe]

Having drove from Victoria to Sudbury ON, I realized a few things.

1) Canada is huge!

2) There is still a lot of 2 lane highway left.

Most of the 2 lane is in the Province of Ontario. Most of Route 1 in Nfld is 2 laned, but it is only about 900km. Highway 17 in Ontario is over 1950km long!

If the federal government were to take over the highways, and they were signed as the USA does for their Interstates, would we see those gaps 4 laned?
Would those highways get more funding to get them done?

If they were to take over those highways, which other ones do you think should be taken over?

Here are my suggestions for new route numbers.

TC 1 - Retains it's current numbering through BC, AB, SK and MB, with the exceptions of:
1) Replace the Fraser valley with the Coquihala route.
2) near Winnipeg, where the highway 100 bypass is added and the city route is dropped. Highway 17/417 in Ontario and Autoroute 40 & highway 138 & 389 in Quebec, Route 500 and 510 in Nfld.

TC 2 - Highway 401 in Ontario, Autoroutes 20 & 85 in Quebec, Route 2 in NB, Highway 104 & 105 in NS, and Route 1 & 2 in Nfld. You would see the rest of Route 1 beyond route 2 in St. John's be renumbered as another TC.

TC 3 - Route 16 in NB, Confederation Bridge, Route 1 in PEI, Wood Islands Ferry, and Highway 106 in NS

TC 4 - The Alaska Highway (Highway 1 in Yukon, Highway 97 in BC)

TC 5 - Crowsnest Highway (Highway 3 in BC and AB)

TC 6 - Takes the current TC 16

TC 7 - Highway 3 & 1 in NWT, highway 2 in AB

TC 8 - Highway 93 in BC and AB

Now, to confuse everything, the next numbering system is inner provincial, but, are a major link to the TC system. Each province and territory is given a number, and that number is in front of another number, the number of the route.

In BC
TC 10 - Highway 17
TC 11 - Highway 5 north of Kamloops

In AB
TC 20 - Highway 4

In SK
TC 30 - Highway 11

In MB
TC 40 - Highway 75

In ON
TC 50 - Highway 11
TC 51 - Highway 71
TC 52 - Highway 61
TC 53 - Highways 400, 144 and 101 to highway 11.
TC 54 - Highway 416
TC 55 - Highway 402
TC 56 - Highways QEW, Gardnier, DVP and 404.

In QC
TC 60 - Autoroute 25
TC 61 - Autoroute 30 in Montreal & 640. Build 2 bridges to finish the ring.
TC 62 - Autoroute 15
TC 63 - Autoroute 55
TC 64 - Autoroute 73

In NB
TC 70 - Route 95
TC 71 - Route 1
TC 72 - Route 15

In NS
TC 80 - Highway 102
TC 81 - Highway 111. One day, it could be a complete ring road.

In PEI
TC 90 - Route 2

In Nfld
TC 100 - the rest of highway 1
TC 101 - highway 100

Maybe with this network, the highways would be upgraded and be in better shape.

Thoughts?

[GreaterMontréal]

TC 61 - Autoroute 30 in Montreal & 640. Build 2 bridges to finish the ring.

It's a future project, a tunnel would be better. Transports Quebec said it would cost $5B.

[1overcosc]

Its interesting that Ontario does not have, and has never had, a Highway 1. Resignating the 17 & 417 to Ontario Highway 1 would be a nice touch to help bring consistent TCH numbering. Ontario would hate that though as it likes to retain numbering consistency among its 400-series highways.

[Innsertnamehere]

Highway 1 is essentially the QEW corridor, but the QEW was constructed right around when the highway numbering system was put into place so it never really got that designation, it just went right from lakeshore road to QEW.

[SignalHillHiker]

Of all the moving I did while living on the mainland, the longest drive was a straight rip from St. John's to Kenora, Ontario. 4,684 km.

I remember feeling like we were almost there when we reached Ottawa. Big mistake. Like thinking it's Friday and finding out it's Thursday.

And I was so excited too because Halifax is the halfway point when driving from St. John's to Toronto, so when we got to skip going that far south and skirted along northern Nova Scotia to Truro, I thought we were ahead.

Lovely drive, though.

Our longest I've ever seen is almost 900 km (I forget where in the upper 800s the sign actually is) to Port-aux-Basques from just outside St. John's.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

If the federal government were to take over the highways, and they were signed as the USA does for their Interstates, would we see those gaps 4 laned?
Would those highways get more funding to get them done?

There is very little through traffic through Northern Ontario. Some stretches of Hwy. 17 through that region have AADTs of less than 2,000 vehicles a day... that's consistent with secondary rural highways in Manitoba. Considering all of the more pressing transportation needs across the country, I don't know that making roads like that 4 lanes would really provide the greatest return on investment, especially considering the immense cost of doing so.

The main thing it would accomplish is to get us closer to being able to say that there is a 4-lane road clear across the country, despite the fact that it would be dramatically underused in certain areas.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by niwell

Ajax was actually named after the light cruiser HMS Ajax, a well renowned ship. Probably better than it deserves, though they have a nice monument on the lake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ajax_(22)

.

Good to know. I was thinking more along the lines of a detergent. Or a Dutch soccer club!

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

The distance between Calgary and Winnipeg is almost 300km shorter than the distance between Barrie and Rainy River..

Driven non-stopish (Stopping for gas and food)from TO to Edmonton a few times. It takes Longer to get out of Ontario than it does from the Manitoba/Ontario Border than from the border to ED.

[Innsertnamehere]

1958 photo of the 401 under construction at the Durham / Northhumberland county border. Courtesy of reddit user "TheSteamingPile" here



Roughly the same angle in 2013, the bridge was demolished earlier this year.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Its interesting that Ontario does not have, and has never had, a Highway 1. Resignating the 17 & 417 to Ontario Highway 1 would be a nice touch to help bring consistent TCH numbering. Ontario would hate that though as it likes to retain numbering consistency among its 400-series highways.

Here's one possible explanation for it, from The King's Highway.ca
Q. Why does Ontario not have a Highway 1?
A. The exact reason is not clear, but reportedly, Highway 1 was omitted from the 1925 route numbering system to eliminate conflicts between many of Ontario's larger towns, who all demanded to be on a highway bearing the route number "1". Given the geographic shape of Ontario, it would have been impossible for the Department of Highways to number a route that would pass through every major town in Ontario. Rather than risk any accusations of favouritism, the Department decided that they would simply not designate a Highway 1, and thus began the route numbering at 2.
Source page

The Q/A just above that one notes: The QEW is sometimes referred to internally by the Ministry of Transportation as either "Highway 1" or "Highway 451"

A bit of historical trivia - The QEW between Toronto and Burlington was built during the mid-1930s along what was known as the "Middle Road" between Hwy 2 (Lakeshore Rd) and Hwy 5 (Dundas St.). That section was complete by 1937, and then over the next few years extended to Niagara Falls. It was given its name in 1939 when King George VI and wife Queen Elizabeth visited... so it's actually named for the Queen Mum.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

1958 photo of the 401 under construction at the Durham / Northhumberland county border. Courtesy of reddit user "TheSteamingPile" here

That's cool. Not too many (any?) of the original overpasses remain along the 401 - there was an old one in Whitby but I can't recall others... I would guess there are some between London and Tilbury and perhaps east of Kingston?

[Innsertnamehere]

This was probably the oldest bridge left, it was on one of the older stretches of the 401. The stretches through London were built in the 1960's from what I remember, the first part of the 401 opened in 1952, but completion didn't come until 1964, possibly even 2015 if you want to count the Windsor - Essex Parkway which will formally complete the 401 for its entire length.

[sonysnob]

[QUOTE=Innsertnamehere;6704954]1958 photo of the 401 under construction at the Durham / Northhumberland county border. Courtesy of reddit user "TheSteamingPile" here



That photo is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

The bridge was demolished this year because it was hit by an oversized truck last fall causing significant structural damage. This is the second time this bridge has been struck by an overheight truck. The old bridge had been hit a couple of times before by overheight trucks, and was actually a hybrid between a concrete and steel bridge because half of it had been replaced during a previous accident.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

This was probably the oldest bridge left, it was on one of the older stretches of the 401. The stretches through London were built in the 1960's from what I remember, the first part of the 401 opened in 1952, but completion didn't come until 1964, possibly even 2015 if you want to count the Windsor - Essex Parkway which will formally complete the 401 for its entire length.

The 401 was completed in 1968.

Several original overpasses remain along Hwy 401 that are much older than this one. Most noteworthy are the ones the structures for Albert Street and Simcoe Street in Oshawa, which off the top of my head, were constructed during the early 1940s.



Virtually all of the structures on the Kingston By-pass portion of Highway 401 are still older, as are the structures on the Brockville by-pass.

Something that I think a lot of people don't know is that a lot of the 401 (though not all) opened as an at-grade highway, with overpasses and interchanges constructed after the highway was opened. Some sections even first opened as a two lane (one per direction) roads, and were later (within a few years) twinned. For example, the section of Highway 401 between Windsor (Provincial Road, old Hwy 98) and Tilbury opened as a four lane road with only two grade separations (at Belle River Road, and Highway 77) with the remaining roads crossing at-grade. The last overpass on that stretch wasn't completed until the late 1960s, almost two decades after the highway opened. Further east, the Tilbury to London portion of highway opened first as a two lane road, and was twinned several years afterwards.