Highways in Canada

[BenTheGreat97]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

A couple of photos of Highway 427 in northern Etobicoke. The MTO is currently constructing HOV lanes along this portion of freeway

Is this going to be 10 lanes total, 4 general + 1 HOV in each direction? Are they expanding it at all with this work?

[Innsertnamehere]

3+1 hov.

[sa230e]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

3+1 hov.

In both directions? I remember in that area that 427 was 3 lanes going south but only 2 northbound which struck me as really scant for a city like Toronto.

[Innsertnamehere]

yep, it'll go from 5 lanes wide to 8 lanes wide including the HOVs.

I always hated the 2 lane stretch as well, it always backed up. MTO has a couple of highways with a different amount of lanes depending on the direction of travel, and I always find them to be a pain.

[SignalHillHiker]

The pretty in pink Burin Peninsula Highway. Almost as far off the beaten track as you can get on the island.

You can cruise along to the latest disco hits from French radio stations broadcast in St-Pierre.

And by some geographic oddity, the farther south one goes on the Avalon and Burin peninsulas, the more barren and sub-arctic the terrain appears. Some areas never turn green.

Speed limits never exceed 90. Actual driving speed tends to be closer to 120.

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Burin Peninsula Highway by R C, on Flickr

Burin Peninsula Highway by R C, on Flickr

Burin Peninsula Highway by R C, on Flickr

Burin Peninsula Highway by R C, on Flickr

[FrAnKs]

This is absolutely beautiful ! I especially loved the first & second one !

[ssiguy]

Question to all my Quebec friends out there.................If someone is going from downtown Montreal to downtown Quebec, do they usually go via the North or South shore freeways?

Londoners have 2 options to Toronto and many now take the 403/QEW because it is a much more direct route.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Question to all my Quebec friends out there.................If someone is going from downtown Montreal to downtown Quebec, do they usually go via the North or South shore freeways?

Londoners have 2 options to Toronto and many now take the 403/QEW because it is a much more direct route.

My friends who live in Montreal tell me that they prefer the A-40. I would say I prefer the same as I've driven both routes.

But one big factor is where on the Island of Montreal or in what surrounding city/town the person lives.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Question to all my Quebec friends out there.................If someone is going from downtown Montreal to downtown Quebec, do they usually go via the North or South shore freeways?

Londoners have 2 options to Toronto and many now take the 403/QEW because it is a much more direct route.

A-20 is considerably busier than the north shore autoroute. A-20 is more direct, but is more prone to traffic congestion than A-40. I went to Quebec City in May via A-20, and it was jammed from A-30 all the way through to Boloel, and didn't really start top open up until Saint-Hyacinthe. There was also a 5km queue on A-30 for traffic trying to get from A-30 onto A-20. I've never been caught in traffic like that on A-40.

[sonysnob]

Video of Hwy 7/8 and 85 in Kitchener/Waterloo starting from the 401. I shot this a few weeks ago.

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[sonysnob]

Video of the Herb Gray Parkway open to traffic:

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[Horus]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

Video of Hwy 7/8 and 85 in Kitchener/Waterloo starting from the 401. I shot this a few weeks ago.

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Nice video. I left the area before the Hwy 8 widening was completed over the Grand River. It looks great, and probably helped ease that congestion point.

Also, a nice capture of the "infamous" Kitchener early merge that is so common there. The blue convertible (about 2:28 into the video) merges left immediately after coming out of the collector lanes, even before the lane markings indicate the merging zone. That kind of thing happens all the time there. I've never seen that behaviour anywhere else.

[Klazu]

Some photos of George Massey Tunnel which is one of the biggest bottlenecks in Metro Vancouver. First some evening photos from Lulu Island (Richmond) side. The tunnel is not very busy at 8pm on Saturday night, but it is congested all other times.







Deas Island is a small island on the south (Delta) side of the tunnel.



Deas Island entrance. Note how dry grass in BC currently is.





Ventilation pipes





Tunnel alignment under Fraser River.



Memorial for tunnel opening.





There is a project to replace this tunnel with a new 10-lane highway bridge over the tunnel (which would then be demolished). This project was announced in 2013 by Christy Clark and this week they announced that it has indeed moving forward as 10 lanes. Funding is still open, but signs along highway are stating that construction will begin in 2017.







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[eternallyme]

Is there any way that Highway 99 can be connected with Highway 1 in the Vancouver area with a direct freeway-to-freeway connection? I'd think upgrading Highway 15 in the east would be the easiest (since there is no way to expand or upgrade 99 across Vancouver).

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

Is there any way that Highway 99 can be connected with Highway 1 in the Vancouver area with a direct freeway-to-freeway connection? I'd think upgrading Highway 15 in the east would be the easiest (since there is no way to expand or upgrade 99 across Vancouver).

That's about as close to Vancouver/far west as a north-south freeway could be, and it should be done, but Cloverdale makes it politically difficult and it's too far east to be used by most of the population.

[MonctonRad]

The southern half of Autoroute 85 in eastern Quebec, connecting Riviere du Loup to the NB border at Edmundston is almost entirely complete. I drove it yesterday coming home from Ottawa and it is indeed very nice. The connection at the NB border to TCH 2 is seamless.

The northern portion of A85 will be completed in the next several years, allowing a continuous all-Canadian freeway link from Windsor ON to Windsor NS.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The southern half of Autoroute 85 in eastern Quebec, connecting Riviere du Loup to the NB border at Edmundston is almost entirely complete. I drove it yesterday coming home from Ottawa and it is indeed very nice. The connection at the NB border to TCH 2 is seamless.

The northern portion of A85 will be completed in the next several years, allowing a continuous all-Canadian freeway link from Windsor ON to Windsor NS.

I've been more than often dissapointed about Quebec's autoroute design in the past.

But what do you personally think of this new section of A85. Would you compare it to NB's ? Is it as smooth ?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

I've been more than often dissapointed about Quebec's autoroute design in the past.

But what do you personally think of this new section of A85. Would you compare it to NB's ? Is it as smooth ?

Smooth yes, and the highway is very well designed too. I'm sure engineering this beast was a nightmare. There wasn't too much room for the new alignment as the valley is pretty narrow and the highway passes very close to existing roads and structures in the communities along the way. Allowing for these limitations, I think they have done a fine job so far. In fact, I think the best part of the drive along the TCH into the Maritimes is now from St. Louis de Ha-Ha! to Grand Falls.

[dmuzika]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

Is there any way that Highway 99 can be connected with Highway 1 in the Vancouver area with a direct freeway-to-freeway connection? I'd think upgrading Highway 15 in the east would be the easiest (since there is no way to expand or upgrade 99 across Vancouver).

What about Boundary Road? A bridge could be constructed across the North Arm to connect with Hwy 91, then traffic could use the Alex Fraser Bridge to connect with Hwy 99. Boundary Road doesn't have a lot of traffic signals between Marine Way and Imperial St, and I'm wondering if something similar to the Herb Grey Parkway could be constructed where it would be a series of tunnels to TCH 1?

Granted, it's Vancouver so any new freeway construction would be politially nuclear.

Originally Posted by Pinion

That's about as close to Vancouver/far west as a north-south freeway could be, and it should be done, but Cloverdale makes it politically difficult and it's too far east to be used by most of the population.

I'm wondering if Hwy 15 would be a good "outer" perimeter connector; outside of Cloverdale.

[sa230e]

Originally Posted by dmuzika

What about Boundary Road? A bridge could be constructed across the North Arm to connect with Hwy 91, then traffic could use the Alex Fraser Bridge to connect with Hwy 99. Boundary Road doesn't have a lot of traffic signals between Marine Way and Imperial St, and I'm wondering if something similar to the Herb Grey Parkway could be constructed where it would be a series of tunnels to TCH 1?

Granted, it's Vancouver so any new freeway construction would be politially nuclear.



I'm wondering if Hwy 15 would be a good "outer" perimeter connector; outside of Cloverdale.

Don't let the tunnels fool you, the Herb Gray Parkway required MASSIVE expropriation. It did not, and was not meant to, preserve the existing suburban landscape. Anything standing on the site of the future freeway and tunnels was bulldozed and dug up. Even homes and businesses that were out of the way were demolished to make room for ramps, feeder roads, bike paths and parkland. The Huron Church corridor looked pretty desolate for a while.

It took 15 years to get approval for the project in Windsor. It's inconceivable that would fly in downtown Vancouver.

I think if there is going to be a tunneled freeway in Vancouver it'll probably have to be more like A-720 in Montreal than the 401 in Windsor. I.e, a real tunnel, bored deep under the city, not the cut and cover tunnels used here in Windsor (which, as nice as they are, are more like really big overpasses).