The 401

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by thewave46

The highway network tends to be conceptually aimed at long-distance travel. Alas, because of the construction of our cities, we tend to use major highways for commuting purposes within regions.

Relatively few users of the 400-series highway network use it to travel outside the region they inhabit. The best solution for reducing congestion on the 401 might be to improve transit within the most congested areas. That's a multi-decade re-imagining of how we move people though.

I don't think our communities have been built in such a way that we could ever shift people from driving onto transit in a meaningful way. Not to mention the fact that the hinterland of Ontario isn't accessible (and really never will be) by meaningful transit.

Places like the UK or Japan that all have really good transit systems don't have geographically huge regions that aren't really accessible via transit like we do.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

I don't think our communities have been built in such a way that we could ever shift people from driving onto transit in a meaningful way. Not to mention the fact that the hinterland of Ontario isn't accessible (and really never will be) by meaningful transit.

Places like the UK or Japan that all have really good transit systems don't have geographically huge regions that aren't really accessible via transit like we do.

There is definitely a lot more potential for transit than there is in use today, though. Particularly in the GTA which absolutely has densities and trip patterns that are capable of supporting it. Pre-COVID, the majority of employment growth in the GTA was happening within walking distance of Union Station. That's extremely supportive of transit-based trips.

But yes, generally, even in places like the Netherlands the majority of trip-kms are still taken by private automobile. Cars are ultimately extremely efficient and as a result are almost always the preferred method of travel in wealthy nations.


Things like improved rail service into Southern Ontario and GO expansion will make a big difference in travel patterns. It's not going to eliminate the need for road widenings though, the growth of Southern Ontario is simply too rapid to be offset by new transit use.

[sonysnob]

Electrifying more GO lines and providing more frequent two-way all-day service on more lines will definitely help, but even that is pretty limited to a few corridors.

Personally, I'd like to the idea of adding an express type of rail service along the CP corridor through midtown Toronto. The CP line runs relatively close to Mississauga City Centre as well as Scarborough Town Centre. It seems to me that there needs to be reliable fast cross regional transit to attract trips from the 401 from the west end to the east end. The Lakeshore GO line is great, but it's a pretty long slog without any midday express services.

[haljackey]

Ya it's kinda a 'why not both' kind of situation these days. The 401 is the economic lifeblood of the province. Time is money and if the highway is congested there are two options to consider.

1- Widen the highway
2- Provide an alternative to reduce traffic volumes on the highway

The latter could be another highway or transit/rail line. I would still love to see the HSR the Libs proposed from London to Toronto before they got booted out by Douggie. But I do understand that's a pipe dream, especially with the 300km/h speeds proposed. For now the best alternative is to widen the 401, get more HFR (high frequency rail), and/or a bypass freeway built connecting Northern London-K/W-Toronto.

Keeping the 401 moving for trucks is extremely important for the economic lifeblood of the province. Some railfans I converse with describe the 401 as a never ending freight train. We don't want to slow down or derail that.

[ZTrade]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Ya it's kinda a 'why not both' kind of situation these days. The 401 is the economic lifeblood of the province. Time is money and if the highway is congested there are two options to consider.

1- Widen the highway
2- Provide an alternative to reduce traffic volumes on the highway

The latter could be another highway or transit/rail line. I would still love to see the HSR the Libs proposed from London to Toronto before they got booted out by Douggie. But I do understand that's a pipe dream, especially with the 300km/h speeds proposed. For now the best alternative is to widen the 401, get more HFR (high frequency rail), and/or a bypass freeway built connecting Northern London-K/W-Toronto.

Keeping the 401 moving for trucks is extremely important for the economic lifeblood of the province. Some railfans I converse with describe the 401 as a never ending freight train. We don't want to slow down or derail that.

Extend the 403 to the 402 in Strathroy
Extend Highway 7 to run from GTA West in Brampton to the 403 in London near the airport NE London.

[MolsonExport]

^both projects have a snowball's chance in hell of happening. Even less likely than HSR.

[Djeffery]

Had to make a quick trip to Toronto this afternoon. Fortunately only as far as the airport area. Wow, what a difference with the new lanes now open. No delay at all, the hardest part of the drive was Martin Grove Rd at Dixon trying to get on the westbound side.

[haljackey]

Lane doubling west of Toronto now completed.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/12/12/major-expansion-highway-401-gta-mississauga-milton-complete/

[Dengler Avenue]

Time to get the champagne out!
Or should we wait till the stretch between Milton and Cambridge is widened too?

[Djeffery]

I think it will be 20 km of hell going west of Milton. At least there are a couple bridges that were widened in previous work a few years ago, but there are a lot of other bridges and culverts that need widened and the highway sits higher than the surrounding terrain in a lot of that space. It definitely isn't premature to pop the cork on this completed work because the next phase will be a long way off and will deserve its own champagne.

[jamincan]

I drive between Kitchener and Mississauga everyday, and it pretty much runs smoothly all the time now, even without the work in Cambridge being complete. An extra lane each way b/w 6N and 6S would be nice to reduce merging in that stretch and, maybe even more than that, an extended merge/hill-climb lane from 6S to 401E would be nice so that traffic isn't slowed by all the gravel trucks heading into Toronto from all the quarries around Aberfoyle.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Time to get the champagne out!
Or should we wait till the stretch between Milton and Cambridge is widened too?

This was a big step in eventually completing the widening west to Highway 8, so yes take the time to celebrate. But save the really good stuff until it's finally done.

Next chunk should be completed next year right- between Highway 24 and Townline? Then you have the work between the two Highway 6 interchanges. During this project, minor work can be completed elsewhere to replace bridges, fix up the grade/slopes, etc to allow the actual widening work to be completed a lot more easily. The work currently being done on the 400 north of Toronto is a good example of what should be done on the remaining 6 lane stretches of the 401 between Cambridge and Milton.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by haljackey

This was a big step in eventually completing the widening west to Highway 8, so yes take the time to celebrate. But save the really good stuff until it's finally done.

Next chunk should be completed next year right- between Highway 24 and Townline? Then you have the work between the two Highway 6 interchanges. During this project, minor work can be completed elsewhere to replace bridges, fix up the grade/slopes, etc to allow the actual widening work to be completed a lot more easily. The work currently being done on the 400 north of Toronto is a good example of what should be done on the remaining 6 lane stretches of the 401 between Cambridge and Milton.

some of that has already been done.

Regardless, i don't think MTO is planning on completing the entire stretch any time too soon, they have yet to complete the EA for the stretch from 6 to Milton.

MTO's focus right now for large-scale widenings is on the 400, which will be getting a decent amount of expansion dollars over the next decade to get it widened to 10 lanes all the way up to 11.

Ford did give MTO a decent chunk of extra money annually for highway expansion in the latest budget, so we should see the amount of work underway across the province at any one time increase soon.

[sonysnob]

The EA to widen the 401 from Milton to the Wellington County Line is starting shortly. The request for proposals for a consultant to conduct the study on the Ministry's behalf just went live earlier this week. The study is supposed to be complete by March 31, 2027, so actual construction will occur sometime after that date.

[Innsertnamehere]

Good to see it finally start - that timeline (3.25 years) seems a bit long for this kind of EA, no?

Regardless, I always figured MTO wasn't in a huge rush to widen that part as it still doesn't get that congested too often. Lots of other regional highways have more regular congestion like the 400, QEW in Niagara, and 401 east of Cobourg.

Does anyone know if MTO has previously completed an EA for the widening of the QEW from Hamilton to St. Catharines? I know MTO has posted long term plans to add HOVs on that stretch, I'm curious if an EA was ever completed.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Good to see it finally start - that timeline (3.25 years) seems a bit long for this kind of EA, no?

Regardless, I always figured MTO wasn't in a huge rush to widen that part as it still doesn't get that congested too often. Lots of other regional highways have more regular congestion like the 400, QEW in Niagara, and 401 east of Cobourg.

Does anyone know if MTO has previously completed an EA for the widening of the QEW from Hamilton to St. Catharines? I know MTO has posted long term plans to add HOVs on that stretch, I'm curious if an EA was ever completed.

Four years does seem like along time for an EA and preliminary design, but that's what has been allocated for it.

When the QEW was widened between Hamilton and St. Catharines it was built for an eight-lane cross-section without HOV lanes. All of the overhead sign supports were built for eight lanes, and the outside shoulder is a full lane wide (3.75m instead of the normal 3.0), and a full concrete road base, so an EA has sort of been done to widen to 8 lanes, but no study has ever been done in support of HOV lanes on that stretch of highway. (And it's not by accident that the MTO's website no longer includes that image of long term HOV lanes. It was taken down deliberately).

[Djeffery]

So is it safe to say that once the Cambridge widening is complete that there will be relative "peace" east of London for a few years? Not counting of course the actual shit show about to be embarked in London.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

So is it safe to say that once the Cambridge widening is complete that there will be relative "peace" east of London for a few years? Not counting of course the actual shit show about to be embarked in London.

You can look at the upcoming projects here- https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontarios-highway-programs

There's lots of 'purple' / rehab on the 401 still between London and Toronto between 2023 and 2025, as well as some 'green' / expansion between the two hwy 6 interchanges, but there's no year set for that work yet.

Some of the rehab is pretty minor and you may not even lose a lane or have the speed limit reduced, others you see both. Hard to tell how extensive some of these projects will be from this graphic.

[sonysnob]

Bridge rehabs are planned at the Pigram Road and Putman Road underpasses east of the truck scales, as well as the rail underpass for the rail spur to Tilsonburg between Culloden Road and Hwy 19. I'd suspect you'll see lane restrictions at both of those locations over the coming years.

[sonysnob]

View of the completed 401 from the Creditview Road overpass:


http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/hwy_401_images/401_cl_337_east_EB-t_Dec22_24x16.jpg