Highways in Canada

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

Some pictures of the 417 construction related to the LRT construction in eastern Ottawa:










Easterly view from the Belfast Road overpass


Easterly view along the 417 towards the new pedestrian overpass from the Vanier Parkway overpass


Westerly view towards the Rideau River bridge from the Vanier Parkway overpass



I've also uploaded some new photos of Hwy 400 north of Barrie:
http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/hwy_400_images/Hwy400_p3_images.htm

Originally Posted by sa230e

So they're installing an LRT in the median?

No, the LRT will be constructed along Ottawa's existing bus-only roadway network. The new lane on the 417 that is being constructed as part of this construction will initially be opened as a bus-only lane to supplant the existing transitway, so that it can be closed and converted to an LRT. Once the LRT has been constructed, the bus-only lane on the 417 will be converted to a general purpose lane and opened to regular traffic.

The City of Ottawa is in the planning stage to extend the LRT out as far east as Orléans. One of the alternatives for the LRT alignment out that far has the LRT running in the median of Ottawa Road 174 (former Highway 17).

[eemy]

There will be exclusive bus-lanes while the Transitway is converted over.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I can imagine highways like 144, 129, and 101 might be candidates for this, or longer Secondary Highways like 599. Trouble is, the traffic volumes on these routes may not be high enough to make anything viable.

The MTO did construct one highway rest area with real bathrooms on Highway 144 at the Watershed. (just a bit South of the intersection with Hwy 560 and beside the Watershed restaurant and gas bar) I believe it was built in the early 1990s. It is nothing fancy but it has bathrooms with running water (but non-drinkable) and flush toilets. There is lots of parking for transports and cars, it is very well lit and has picnic tables. There was even a hiking trail behind but I don't think it really exists anymore.

Recently, the cleaning and maintenance of the facility is done by the company that has the highway maintenance contract which I believe is IMOS, part of Miller Paving. They have added beverage vending machines outside the bathrooms. The unfortunate part is that the "real" bathrooms are often locked for unknown reasons. They have built bathrooms just like you see at the other picnic highway rest areas that don't have running water. So you have to use them when the "real" bathrooms are locked but at least they are lit.

MANY transport drivers stop at that rest area. Quite a few of the drivers today are female and I'm sure they are glad to have the facility. I wish the MTO would build more of these and they should look at ideas such as partnering up with a private business, organization, municipality, etc.. There are very long distances without 24 hour businesses such as Tim Hortons or gas stations along highways in Northern Ontario.

[sa230e]

Is the MTO just not bothering to put exit tabs on overhead signs anymore? They're missing in the Ottawa photos. Same thing happening here in Windsor.

[middeljohn]

I've been seeing some backlash against the 407 ETR company on social media the last few days. Got me wondering, are they able to charge Alberta plates?

[Dwils01]

Yes they will charge anybody who uses that highway even if the plates are from the states.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by sa230e

Is the MTO just not bothering to put exit tabs on overhead signs anymore? They're missing in the Ottawa photos. Same thing happening here in Windsor.

I think the works being undertaken on this part of the 417 are being completed by a third party consortium, and not administered by the MTO, in a similar manner to how the WE Parkway has been constructed in Windsor, which could explain some of the signage irregularities.

That said, I consider a lot of the new signage that has gone up in the Ottawa area on projects constructed by the MTO to be fairly sloppy as well.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by sa230e

Is the MTO just not bothering to put exit tabs on overhead signs anymore? They're missing in the Ottawa photos. Same thing happening here in Windsor.

Most of the signage in that segment of Highway 417 is temporary. The lanes are constantly being moved around and they will be shifted significantly once in their final configuration. If they are putting exit tabs, they're going to wait until the tabs actually line up with the lanes in question.

[sonysnob]

MTO is studying the conversion of HOV lanes into HOT lanes on some GTA freeways:

6. Project Length/Location:
• Highway 400: Highway 401 to Highway 9
• Highway 401: Regional Road 25 to Highway 427
• Highway 404: Highway 401 to Stouffville Road
• Highway 410: Highway 401 to Queen Street
• Queen Elizabeth Way: Highway 407 to Highway 427


7. Project Type (Category):

Advanced Traffic Management Systems
Bridge Engineering
Highway Engineering
Traffic Engineering
Transportation (Systems) Planning


8. Specialties Required:

ATMS Product, Process and Strategic Development
Design & Evaluation - Complex Structures (multi-span)
Rehabilitation - General
Preliminary Design - Functional Planning & Design Studies
Traffic Operational Performance Processes
Traffic Operations Studies
Traffic Signing Policies/Traffic Control Devices
Transportation Economics
Transportation Modelling & Transportation Demand Forecasting
Transportation Network Assessment
Transportation Study


9. Description of Project:
This project consists of a feasibility study and business case for High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes on 5 highway corridors in Central Region.

HOT lanes typically allow specified High Occupancy Vehicles (HOVs) to use the lanes for free while charging a fee for other vehicles. MTO is currently investigating the feasibility and business case for HOT lanes on five major freeway corridors; 427, 400, 401, 410, and QEW.

This project includes the following:

a) User Preference Survey – to determine the willingness of motorists to pay for the use of HOT lanes;

b) Macro Modelling – to obtain existing and future Origin-Destination data. The Proponent will be responsible for Developing model inputs (in EMME) and analysing outputs. Macro Model runs will be provided by MTO from their Greater Golden Horseshoe Model.

c) Traffic Simulation Modelling - to determine demand, revenue potential and operational analysis of various design options, including:
i. Single lane HOT
ii. Dual lane HOT (take away a General Purpose Lane, or create a second new lane by reconfiguring the cross section)
iii. Reversible dual HOT
iv. 2+ vs 3+ lanes

d) Geometric fit for the options above

e) Cost and schedule implications

f) Revenue projections for the options above and considering various dynamic pricing schemes

g) Concept of Operations, tolling infrastructure and operating costs.

h) Policy and safety issues.


10. Assignment approximate start and completion dates:
Pre-contract engineering phase: September 2015 to September 2017
Construction administration phase: (tentative timing) N/A

[Innsertnamehere]

Most interesting part of that is the 401 to the 427.. That stretch doesn't currently have HOVs nor does it have them planned.. Would they be a lane conversion or a further widening of the widest highway on the continent?

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Most interesting part of that is the 401 to the 427.. That stretch doesn't currently have HOVs nor does it have them planned.. Would they be a lane conversion or a further widening of the widest highway on the continent?

The MTO has studied converting the inner-most general purpose express lanes as far east as the airport transfer to an HOV lane in the past. When studied, it was found that the HOV lane conversion wasn't warranted because the conversion didn't meet the MTO's HOV lane criteria. (The HOV lane warrant criteria considers both the time savings for HOV traffic vs. GPL traffic for implementation and mandates that any new HOV facility start with at least a minimum traffic load of (a paltry) 500 vehicles per hour in the peak hour).

The idea of an HOT lane on the 400 as far south as the 401 is also a new idea. To my knowledge, an HOV lane has never been postulated further south than the 407.

[Innsertnamehere]

Makes me wonder if the tolls will allow them to finance a widening for the new lanes.

[Innsertnamehere]

No pictures, but significant paving works have now begun on the 407 extension,
And it's going to be asphalt. The Brock road eastbound offramp was paved today, and the eastbound carriageway approaching Brock road was paved earlier this week. The December opening date is increasingly looking like it may happen, though the work further east is behind, and still needs a lot before it can open.

[sonysnob]

^ From the looks of things, traffic is going to be moved over to the new overpass on Simcoe Street this week. Today, (and maybe before today) there was a PVMS sign at the Simcoe/Winchester intersection advising motorists of lane restrictions for three days starting June 8.

It looks like they may have had some difficulty with some underground services in the vicinity of Simcoe Street. I was through there a week or so ago, and a large excavation had been dug through the previously paved northern approach to the overpass. They had a gas line exposed for a long time when they were building the overpass in the vicinity of where the excavated again, so I suspect something may not have been installed correctly prior to backfilling last year.

[Kokkei Mizu]

A brand new interchange opened today at Yellowhead Trail/Sherwood Drive as part of the Northeast Anthony Henday Drive project in Edmonton.

Here's an aerial photo of the interchange taken sometime in the past month.


http://northeastanthonyhenday.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3315&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

[TownGuy]

Looks like they cheaped out and went with a diamond interchange. I dont know if the MTO even builds those anymore in Ontario. If they do it would be in a rural area not a city.

[Franco401]

Originally Posted by TownGuy

Looks like they cheaped out and went with a diamond interchange. I dont know if the MTO even builds those anymore in Ontario. If they do it would be in a rural area not a city.

It's really not a big deal. Diamond is simplest type of interchange, and Parclos are not necessary unless there is serious amounts of traffic. We can't all have unlimited funds to build the perfect interchange.

[middeljohn]

The majority of our interchanges are diamonds. They're not all that bad though. Diamonds take up less space than parclos so the freeways don't tear neighbourhoods apart nearly as much. And also, since they're completely straight you have a lot of time to get to speed.

My bigger grief with freeways here is how short the merging area is on the on-ramps. Typically 50-100m as opposed to Ontario where 100m is the minimum but urban areas are closer to 300m.

[MonctonRad]

I agree, diamond interchanges work very well in NB. There is only one full cloverleaf in the entire province (junction of TCH #2 and TCH #15 in Moncton). There are a minority of parclos, but diamonds predominate.

[1overcosc]

Ontario is a bit obsessed with parclos, they build them everywhere, even on little tiny farm road exits in the middle of the countryside. It's the provincial standard. I believe parclos were actually invented by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

Some older interchanges, before the widespread adoption of parclos, still exist in cloverleaf configurations (usually with various types of modification to reduce weaving), but I don't think there's diamonds anywhere other than a few in tight urban environments where they had no room for parclos.