Highways in Canada

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

The A720 is easily the most impressive highway in the country IMO. damn nice piece of infrastructure.

Really? I've drivin it quite extensively and never really thought that. Compared to say the 401, through Toronto, it is a little pimple. I suppose it is a different kind of highway though.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by TownGuy

Really? I've drivin it quite extensively and never really thought that. Compared to say the 401, through Toronto, it is a little pimple. I suppose it is a different kind of highway though.

It's not the size, but the fact that it goes underneath the downtown core.
Tunnel Ville-Marie and tunnel Viger , 3km long. The engineering is much more complex than building a 16 lines highway.

[FrAnKs]

I've already posted that one in the past, but it's Worth reposting.
This guy did an awesome editing job.

• Video Link

[leftimage]

Originally Posted by TownGuy

Really? I've drivin it quite extensively and never really thought that. Compared to say the 401, through Toronto, it is a little pimple. I suppose it is a different kind of highway though.

Montreal's system is much more complex and ambitious.. bridges, tunnels, bridge-tunnels, the décarie bowl, monstrous stack interchanges.

More a severe rash than a pimple, really

[FrAnKs]

No doubt about that!

It's a real crumbling mess

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by leftimage

Montreal's system is much more complex and ambitious.. bridges, tunnels, bridge-tunnels, the décarie bowl, monstrous stack interchanges.

More a severe rash than a pimple, really

Ambitious it is. But ultimately I find driving Montreal's highways is like taking a time machine back in time. It is also confusing and disjointed as hell. I guess that lends itself back to the intial ambition. I find GTA highways to much more impressive, modern and straightforward.

[Innsertnamehere]

Toronto's system as a whole is more impressive IMO, its got tons of huge highways. 5 different highways with 12+ lanes, for example.

All the 407 interchanges are impressive as hell too. The 407-400 interchange is a 4 stack and is really cool when you are on the bottom stack.

Montreals system looks more impressive from a map, and has more impressive portions (Turcot, trenched A15, A720), but Torontos is a more impressive system as a whole. There is just something you cannot match by driving on a highway 18 lanes wide, change to another highway with 12 lanes, and again onto a different highway with 12 lanes (401-400-407). Its nuts.

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

It's not the size, but the fact that it goes underneath the downtown core.
Tunnel Ville-Marie and tunnel Viger , 3km long. The engineering is much more complex than building a 16 lines highway.

True enough. The 401 is an engineering feat for how long of a distance it goes on being massive.


http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Highway_401

Having that go acrossed the complete length of a city is quite a feat!

[caltrane74]

Not only the 30km through Toronto, but a good chunk of Mississauga, and Pickering is also 12 lane freeway as well.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by leftimage

Montreal, home of the nation's most massive, brooding highway system

Just look at this beast:

• Video Link

The highways featured in that video are certainly woot-wootable.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by caltrane74

Not only the 30km through Toronto, but a good chunk of Mississauga, and Pickering is also 12 lane freeway as well.

A-40 in Montréal goes through the island. From Pont Charles-de-Gaules to Pont de l'Île-aux-Tourtes, 52km.

Ambitious it is. But ultimately I find driving Montreal's highways is like taking a time machine back in time. It is also confusing and disjointed as hell. I guess that lends itself back to the intial ambition. I find GTA highways to much more impressive, modern and straightforward.

Toronto is not an island, when the 401-427 was built, it was nothing but fields. Houston or LA are better comparisons.

[niwell]

The only highways Toronto built through the city were the Gardiner and DVP. The Gardiner was built on the waterfront on vacant land and the edge of an industrial wasteland. The DVP was built in a river valley. Aside from a few km of the Allen Expressway Toronto didn't shove freeways through neighbourhoods.

Montreal has some real urban expressways. For better or worse. But they are more intense from an urban perspective than anything Toronto has to offer. The 401 is on another level but it wasn't shoved through a built-up city.

[itom 987]

It looks like Boston, before the "big dig".

[TownGuy]

I think the Gardiner is actually pretty badass. The condos have definitely helped it. That area isn't so much of a wasteland anymore. It almost blends in seamlessly with the urban fabric. I think you could make an argument for it being the most urban stretch of highway in Canada nowadays.


http://www.torontosnaps.com/Downtown/Condominiums-along-Gardiner-Expressway-13776.html


http://www.blogto.com/city/2014/04/get_ready_for_an_even_more_awful_gardiner_commute/


http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2013/10/photo-day-weave


gardiner expressway | toronto. by alyssaBLACK., on Flick

[itom 987]

It also looks like Shanghai.

[libtard]

I'd say Montreals trenched highway(s) is the most urban in Canada. It integrates with the urban fabric of the area so much better then a raised viaduct highway (Gardiner)

[leftimage]

Originally Posted by libtard

I'd say Montreals trenched highway(s) is the most urban in Canada. It integrates with the urban fabric of the area so much better then a raised viaduct highway (Gardiner)

I agree, and I would put the 720 in second position for similar reasons. It's literally a staircase-type highway (above, to the left in the video are 4 lanes going opposite direction) built on a natural escarpment that evolves into 2 seperate 5km tunnels running right across the downtown core. It's a remarkably discrete highway - one can explore Montreal at length before even noticing it's there.

The only city that would even necessitate a system this complex is Vancouver, although the challenges there are perhaps so great that they've turned their back on highway idea altogether.

Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton ... nothing is stopping them, geographically speaking, from building as many highways as needed. Although in TO's case I think a Gardiner tunnel would be a very wise investment... the real estate space created would be worth a fortune.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by leftimage

I agree, and I would put the 720 in second position for similar reasons. It's literally a staircase-type highway (above, to the left in the video are 4 lanes going opposite direction) built on a natural escarpment that evolves into 2 seperate 5km tunnels running right across the downtown core. It's a remarkably discrete highway - one can explore Montreal at length before even noticing it's there.

The only city that would even necessitate a system this complex is Vancouver, although the challenges there are perhaps so great that they've turned their back on highway idea altogether.

Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton ... nothing is stopping them, geographically speaking, from building as many highways as needed. Although in TO's case I think a Gardiner tunnel would be a very wise investment... the real estate space created would be worth a fortune.

A trenched Gardiner with aerial rights, is that possible?

[craner]

Was there ever plans to continue the Gardiner eastward?

[Innsertnamehere]

yes, it was going to follow the rail corridor and meet up with the 401 at the Scarborough - Pickering border (where Kingston road meets the 401). It was in the planning books until the mid 1970's as was originally planned to be built after the Spadina Expressway (which would have been impressive in its own right, but at great expense to its surroundings).

There are a few rail line overpasses that are overly long, as they are designed to fit the scarborough expressway below them.

There are actually quite a few relics around Toronto pointing to the old planned highway network, invisible and visible.

off the top of my head:

- U of T residence along Spadina with no windows facing spadina as there was a planned expressway there.
- Eglinton offramps from the 401 are designed for a full freeway as Eglinton was planned to be the richview expressway.
- Gardiner supports around Strachan avenue are designed to support a highway interchange for the planned Highway 400 extension
- Gardiner widens to 8 lanes before merging with the DVP as it was planned to absorb both DVP and Scarborough expressway traffic
- Bayview-Bloor interchange on the DVP is designed to be converted to the Crosstown Expressway
- large right of way for rail tracks in Scarborough (only recently sold off) to fit the planned highway.
- largely unknown to the public, but there are still easements throughout the city on surveying documents for the highways, that for some reason have never been changed. For example the Richview - 400 interchange still has its land easement, despite being cancelled for over 40 years.