Highways in Canada

[eemy]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Passing lanes are almost nonexistent in Western Ontario. I can think of one near Lucan.

They've added a few to Hwy 6 to Owen Sound and Hwy 10 has had them for awhile.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

They've added a few to Hwy 6 to Owen Sound and Hwy 10 has had them for awhile.

I'm not as familiar with that area, but I suspect they'd be in the areas crossing the Niagara Escarpment. I think there's one on Highway 89 up there as well. Most of Western Ontario is flat enough that passing lanes aren't really needed in many cases as (a) there are more straight, flat sections of road where passing in the oncoming lane can be done safely, and (b) fewer upward grades where it can be easy to get stuck behind a slower-moving truck that can't climb as fast as a smaller car. The old Highway 2 west of London had a couple going into and coming out of the Thames River valley.

[eemy]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I'm not as familiar with that area, but I suspect they'd be in the areas crossing the Niagara Escarpment. I think there's one on Highway 89 up there as well. Most of Western Ontario is flat enough that passing lanes aren't really needed in many cases as (a) there are more straight, flat sections of road where passing in the oncoming lane can be done safely, and (b) fewer upward grades where it can be easy to get stuck behind a slower-moving truck that can't climb as fast as a smaller car. The old Highway 2 west of London had a couple going into and coming out of the Thames River valley.

Nope, they aren't overtaking lanes on big hills; they're purely just for convenience.

[Horus]

According to today's Kitchener Record (link), work will start soon on the new Highway 7 between Guelph and Kitchener.

Highway 7 construction starts this spring

Initial work is expected to start in the spring for a new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph. Widening of the Guelph Street bridge along Highway 85 starts in middle May, said Liane Fisher, spokesperson for the Ontario transportation ministry. Guelph Street will be closed at the bridge until early October. Utility relocations along Victoria Street and work on the Shirley Avenue extension are expected to start in the fall. Lane restrictions are expected in both areas as that work continues into spring 2016. Building the new highway eastward to the Hanlon Parkway in Guelph is expected to take five years. The highway was expected to cost $300 million, in a 2007 estimate.

[GreaterMontréal]

BAPE greenlights Highway 19 extension

A $600-million plan to extend Highway 19 through Laval and into the northern suburbs that critics contend will exacerbate traffic congestion on Montreal has been given the green light by Quebec’s environmental review board, with some reservations.

“The strong demographic increase forecast for the coming years in Laval and the muncipalities north of Laval will increase traffic constantly in the corridor under study, whether the highway extension project is completed or not,” the report reads. “Despite the multitude of visions and opinions, the need for an improved link is unanimous among all participants.”

The project, estimated at $500 to 600-million, would add, in each direction, an extra lane for vehicles, a third bus-only lane, and a multi-use path for cyclists and snowmobiles.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/bape-greenlights-highway-19-extension

[VANRIDERFAN]

PM announces funding for Highway 7 twinning between Saskatoon and Delisle.

PM announces funding for Highway 7 twinning
Harper makes appearance at SARM
Reported by News Talk Radio staff
First Posted: Mar 12, 2015 6:21am | Last Updated: Mar 12, 2015 2:56pm
Change text size: + -
The federal government is providing up to $32 million to twin Highway 7 between Saskatoon and Delisle.

Premier Brad Wall and Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement in Saskatoon Thursday that Ottawa will fund half the eligible costs of the 25-kilometre stretch of highway.

Twinning Highway 7 is expected to begin this spring. Grading work will start between Saskatoon to just east of Vanscoy. The entire twinning project should be finished as soon as fall 2018.

Consultations with Vanscoy are still continuing after concerns from business owners who don’t want the new highway to swing 1.5 kms around the village.

The Ministry of Highways is in the process of finalizing the route for a bypass around the village which has some in the community of nearly 400 concerned about lost business and restricting future expansion.

In addition to twinning Highway 7 between Saskatoon and Delisle, four sets of passing lanes from Delisle to Rosetown are expected to be completed sometime this year.

The government recently twinned Highway 11 from Saskatoon to Prince Albert and is continuing to twin Highway 16 from Saskatoon to Clavet.

Planning is in the works to twin Highway 6 and 39 from Regina to the U.S. border.

Harper is participating in a moderated question and answer session at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municpalities (SARM) convention Wednesday afternoon.

Harper rolls into town at a time when he has made headlines this week for his comments that face-covering veils worn by some Muslim women are a product of a culture that is "anti-women."

The PM's rhetoric against the niqab was in response to his government’s decision to appeal a court ruling allowing a woman to have her face covered by a niqab while reciting the oath of citizenship.

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Follow on Twitter @CKOMNews

[waterloowarrior]

^ just curious.... besides politics/election year reasons, why would the federal government be involved in funding half of this widening? The towns on the route seems to have less than 1000 people.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

^ just curious.... besides politics/election year reasons, why would the federal government be involved in funding half of this widening? The towns on the route seems to have less than 1000 people.

Potash mine at Vanscoy, also that highway sees all the traffic from Calgary to Saskatoon as well as traffic coming from SW SK (Swift Current region).

The other highway that needs the 4 lanes is the one from Regina to the US border. Lots of fatal crashes on that road as well.

[Acajack]

Also, if a province can get the feds to agree to including a highway in the national highway system (NHS) (yes! we have one - sort of) then it becomes eligible for some funding from Ottawa.

[MonctonRad]

Canada's National Highway System (a pale imitation of the US interstate system)

[Taeolas]

HOnestly, given our population distribution, on paper it doesn't look too bad.

The main flaw is unlike the Interstate system, it isn't mostly 4+lane highway. Well that, and the fact that it's got an obvious 'choke point' between T-Bay and Winterpeg.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Canada's National Highway System (a pale imitation of the US interstate system)

The US Interstate system was born as a defence project. That is how it got (and still receives) annual federal funding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System

The Interstate Highway System gained a champion in President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was influenced by his experiences as a young Army officer crossing the country in the 1919 Army Convoy on the Lincoln Highway, the first road across America. Eisenhower gained an appreciation of the Reichsautobahn system, the first "national" implementation of modern Germany's Autobahn network, as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II.[9] He recognized that the proposed system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion.


1955 map: The planned status of U.S Highways in 1965, as a result of the developing Interstate Highway System

I‑55 under construction in Mississippi, photo from May 1972
The publication in 1955 of the General Location of National System of Interstate Highways, informally known as the Yellow Book, mapped out what became the Interstate System.[10] Assisting in the planning was Charles Erwin Wilson, who was still head of General Motors when President Eisenhower selected him as Secretary of Defense in January 1953.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

HOnestly, given our population distribution, on paper it doesn't look too bad.

The main flaw is unlike the Interstate system, it isn't mostly 4+lane highway. Well that, and the fact that it's got an obvious 'choke point' between T-Bay and Winterpeg.

That "choke point" wouldn't even be one if it was four divided lanes. No need for parallel routes on that stretch. Just ONE good one.

[eemy]

I thought 11 west to Fort Frances was also a part of the National Highway System. Isn't that chokepoint eventually going to be fixed with the twinning project underway?

[MalcolmTucker]

Justifying finishing the routes over northern Ontario to 4 lane divided is pretty hard. I'm fine with incremental upgrades to 3 lanes with two lane sections for expensive bridges and rock cuts.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

HOnestly, given our population distribution, on paper it doesn't look too bad.

The main flaw is unlike the Interstate system, it isn't mostly 4+lane highway. Well that, and the fact that it's got an obvious 'choke point' between T-Bay and Winterpeg.

This highway is not that great... it's still mostly 2-lane with many treacherous stretches. But traffic volumes are not that high apart from summer peak seasons (long weekends, etc.). I'd imagine that a significant chunk of E-W traffic across northern Ontario actually ends up going through the US, which is at least as fast at the TCH.

[Innsertnamehere]

Driving from Toronto to Alberta is certainly faster to do by cutting through the states.

Same with driving Toronto to the Maritimes.

The Choke point is highway 11/17 between Nipigon and TB, not TB and Winnipeg. At that point it is literally the only road crossing the country. Every vehicle travelling from MB to ON needs to cross it. It is slowly getting twinned however, the government is issuing roughly 10km contracts every year or so to cover the 100km stretch. Right now around 30km is completed.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

The Choke point is highway 11/17 between Nipigon and TB, not TB and Winnipeg. At that point it is literally the only road crossing the country.

The same can be said for the TCH between Kenora and the Manitoba border. There's a lot of action there, from nasty smash-ups to all kinds of law enforcement action. There's no way around it without crossing the border into the US.

[jmt18325]

And that was set to begin twinning, but aboriginal negotiations have slowed it down. It's now about 6 years behind schedule.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I thought 11 west to Fort Frances was also a part of the National Highway System. Isn't that chokepoint eventually going to be fixed with the twinning project underway?

It's part of the Trans-Canada Highway, but is not part of the NHS. It is one of, I think, two sections of TCH not part of the NHS; the other I'm aware of is on Cape Breton.