TCH east of Nipigon (La route transcanadienne à l'est de Nipigon)

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gi-slz4cAZ1HgJuwLvplW2TZ6e4&usp=sharing

I did this up a few weeks ago. I renumbered things to make it flow.

Highway 17 east of SSM makes sense. It should go from the International Bridge, all the way to where the 417 is now. There are lots of communities along that part of the highway.

Highway 17 West of Thunder Bay makes sense as well. It connects to the rest of Canada.

Highway 11 south of Hearst makes sense. There are lots of communities. Also, the terrain is easy to build on once you get north of New Liskard.

But what about Between Nipigon and SSM/Hearst?

As a motorcyclist, the thought of taming 17 north of SSM is utter madness. It is a beautiful highway with curves and hills that just ask to be ridden. Those same curves make it prohibitively expensive to build highways.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Highway_17#The_Gap
"The Gap

Following the war, construction on the missing segment of Highway 17 between Schreiber and Sault Ste. Marie proceeded slowly; the completion of Highway 11 between Nipigon and Hearst already provided a road between the east and west. However, in 1949 the federal government signed the Trans Canada Highway Act, which provided up to a 90% subsidy to provinces to complete their portion of the highway to the required standards. Two portions of Ontario's route were eligible for this subsidy: Highway 69 between Parry Sound and Sudbury, and Highway 17 along the north shore of Lake Superior.[22]

Amongst some of the most difficult terrain encountered in Canada, engineers blasted 2,087,234 cubic metres (2,730,000 cubic yards) of rock, removed 5,982,641 cubic metres (7,825,000 cubic yards) of earth, and cleared 6.97 square kilometres (1,720 acres) of forest in order to bridge the 266 kilometres (165 mi) of wilderness known as "the Gap".[22] The Gap was completed and opened to traffic on September 17, 1960, uniting the two segments and completing the route of Highway 17 from the Manitoba border to the Quebec border."

"Before the outbreak of World War II in 1939, a new bridge spanning the Nipigon River was completed alongside a 91.6 km (56.9 mi) highway eastward to Schreiber. Both were opened together ceremoniously on September 24, 1937.[20] When the war began, construction on Highway 17 halted,[8] with effort instead focused on the simpler northern route via Geraldton and Hearst."

Highway 11 is a simpler route to work with. You might argue of less traffic, but if it were made into a 4 lane highway, the number would quickly climb as it would be the easier, and faster route for truckers. This would likely remove trucks from 17 Between SSM and Nipigon for those not going specifically between there.

Does that mean twinning 11 between Nipigon and North Bay then?
Also what did you mean by taming 17 (as a motorcyclist)?

Ps: I used to have this idea - Twin 11 between Nipigon and North Bay (with a branch off to Timmins) because the future all-season road to James Bay will start at either Hearst or Smooth Rock Falls. (Speaking of that, will Ring of Fire intersect 11 anyhow?) As for the 17 corridor between SSM and North Bay, revive the northland passenger trains! Costs will be a joke though...

Ps: For twinning 17 along the north shore of Lake Superior (to which, it seems, everybody is opposed), I was gonna say "Learn from BC" as they're trying to twin Highway 1 among mountains and passes. Then I realized there's a difference between doing that for 100 km at most and doing that for nearly 600 km...