Highways in Canada

[madog222]

Kicking Horse Canyon from late April.


Protection Mesh Along Cut 4 by B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, on Flickr


Excavation at Cut 4 by B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, on Flickr

[Metro-One]

And this is a key reason why BC no longer builds wide medians.

It’s a big province with a relatively low population density, but spread enough where we need highways to all corners, the most difficult topography in the country overall and with no true federal highway program.

If the #1 was uplifted and funded entirely by the feds, well then maybe other highways in BC could be upgraded with grass medians.

[sonysnob]

Turcot:


https://www.asphaltplanet.ca/PQ/A/20/A20_DJI_0077.jpg

[Innsertnamehere]

Hamilton's Highway 6 widening study is progressing. A public information meeting was held in November which indicates that the Province appears to intend to build interchanges along the corridor and upgrade it to a 100km/h freeway, and not simply provide a twinned roadway with signalized intersections. The province announced construction funding for this last year, so it should move to construction in relative short order.


https://hwy6southwideninghamilton.ca/consultation/


Book Road - I suspect we will see a traditional Parclo interchange here (Alternative 1A)



Airport Road - Alternative 1 is my favourite for this one:



Some interesting options for the intersection with Upper James.. I think I would go with Option 1B (roundabout) for now, and hold of on the full reconfiguration of the intersection until the extension to Caledonia is built. I could see MTO going with 3B to reduce duplication costs for the Caledonia extension, but I really hope they don't go with 4 with the silly loop.

[harls]

Google has 'Autoroute Guy-Lafleur' now labelled on A-50 in Québec.

Still haven't seen any signage in real life, yet.

I suspect the first signs might be on the MC bridge coming into the city from Ottawa, or in Mirabel on the 15.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

Google has 'Autoroute Guy-Lafleur' now labelled on A-50 in Québec.

Still haven't seen any signage in real life, yet.

I suspect the first signs might be on the MC bridge coming into the city from Ottawa, or in Mirabel on the 15.

Some of the new signs are there now. One is at the western start of the eastbound A-50, near Montcalm. There is another one westbound just after the Buckingham-Masson exit.

Both signs used to say "Autoroute de l'Outaouais".

[harls]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Some of the new signs are there now. One is at the western start of the eastbound A-50, near Montcalm. There is another one westbound just after the Buckingham-Masson exit.

Both signs used to say "Autoroute de l'Outaouais".

Ah, ok. Man I haven't been to Buckingham in ages. The one at Montcalm, I know where you are talking about.

But I was talking about overhead signs. In Montréal you have signs like 'Aut. Laval' on the actual freeway. Wonder if they will do that here?

(maybe they don't have that anymore, it's been ages since I've been to Montréal, but I will be there this weekend!)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

Ah, ok. Man I haven't been to Buckingham in ages. The one at Montcalm, I know where you are talking about.

But I was talking about overhead signs. In Montréal you have signs like 'Aut. Laval' on the actual freeway. Wonder if they will do that here?

(maybe they don't have that anymore, it's been ages since I've been to Montréal, but I will be there this weekend!)

Don't think we ever had those signs in the Outaouais before anyway. There are still some in the Montreal area and in Quebec City, but less than before. Looks like they are on their way out. It's really the numbers that are prioritized in the signage now.

[whatnext]

Sad news today. RIP

At least 15 dead in Trans-Canada crash west of Winnipeg
WINNIPEG, MB
THE CANADIAN PRESS
PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO

At least 15 people, including a number of seniors, are dead and at least 10 others have been taken to hospital following a highway crash west of Winnipeg, Manitoba RCMP confirmed Thursday.

At 11:43 a.m. CT on Thursday, Manitoba RCMP was dispatched to a multi-vehicle collision at the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 5, Assistant Commissioner Rob Hill, the commanding officer of Manitoba’s RCMP, told listeners at a news conference following the crash.

An eastbound semi-trailer collided with a westbound bus containing seniors that had already entered the intersection. Specialized experts have been deployed to the scene, including forensics experts, Manitoba RCMP said.

RCMP officials caution this is a developing event and facts will be limited. Additional updates will be provided as the investigation continues. Manitoba RCMP confirmed the drivers of both vehicles are alive.

Photos supplied to The Canadian Press by a witness at the scene show what looks like a large van smouldering in a ditch alongside the road...

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/a...-trans-canada-highway-crash-in-manitoba/

[Nashe]

Very sad.

Have you google mapped that intersection. Geez.

Yikes

Avoidable? Totally. Still, though... what's the speed limit on Trunk 5? That's an awful lot to watch for crossing those four lanes.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Nashe

Very sad.

Have you google mapped that intersection. Geez.

Yikes

Avoidable? Totally. Still, though... what's the speed limit on Trunk 5? That's an awful lot to watch for crossing those four lanes.

Yes it is ridiculous. I realize there are costs vs traffic volume issues, but maybe we shouldn't have level crossing of a four lane transcontinental highway.

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Yes it is ridiculous. I realize there are costs vs traffic volume issues, but maybe we shouldn't have level crossing of a four lane transcontinental highway.

I just looked at the street view... I think I was wrong... it's SIX lanes there (3 each direction, though one of those seem to be left turning lanes). And a couple of flashing stop signs. Aaaand I guess the speed limit on the 5 (crossing the TCH) is 100, though there are some (small?) warning signs. I'd be surprised if this was the FIRST fatality at that intersection.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by Nashe

I just looked at the street view... I think I was wrong... it's SIX lanes there (3 each direction, though one of those seem to be left turning lanes). And a couple of flashing stop signs. Aaaand I guess the speed limit on the 5 (crossing the TCH) is 100, though there are some (small?) warning signs. I'd be surprised if this was the FIRST fatality at that intersection.

Single occupancy vehicle vs single occupancy vehicle crashes rarely make the newspaper because of how common they are.

It's a little ridiculous to me that our primary highway across the country has stop sign intersections with other highways. Surely there's a better way. (Giant roundabout maybe?)

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Yes it is ridiculous. I realize there are costs vs traffic volume issues, but maybe we shouldn't have level crossing of a four lane transcontinental highway.

Do you realize how many billions would be spent to do this? You are talking of most road crossings from the Rockies to the Canadian Shield.

[craner]

^They can do it in the States for 80,000 kms criss-crossing the country. We’re just asking for one single freeway coast to coast.

[swimmer_spe]

Bus and a truck collides.
Maybe there is an issue with highways in the Prairies. This is not the first.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by craner

^They can do it in the States for hundreds of thousands of kms criss-crossing the country. We’re just asking for one single freeway coast to coast.

They did it when labour and supplies were cheap.

[esquire]

Here are some aerial shots of the accident site from the Winnipeg Free Press. Any accident reconstruction experts here? I have no idea what happened based on these pictures.

[ericmacm]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Do you realize how many billions would be spent to do this? You are talking of most road crossings from the Rockies to the Canadian Shield.

Cost is absolutely a huge factor, unfortunately. The construction of brand new interchanges these days seems to be coming in at around $150-200M (in ideal conditions like open prairie, areas with challenging terrain would likely cost even more) and the costs of overpasses are highly variable.

Just doing some ballpark estimating, using the TCH in Manitoba as an example, if you were to build a new interchange every 10 km or so (using average interchange spacing on 401 in SW Ontario as an example), you would be building around 14 on the segment of the TCH between Winnipeg and the Ontario border, which would cost around $2.1-2.8B just for the interchanges, not counting overpass grade separations, bypasses, or access removals. The number would grow closer to around $9.2B to include interchanges on the remainder of the TCH in Manitoba if you continued with an approximately 10km spacing.

While something like this is not out of the realm of impossibility, it is a lot of money for what is realistically not a lot of return outside of safety improvements. Interchanges will improve safety and will reduce accidents, especially on a TCH system that sees an ever-increasing amount of truck traffic, but a $9.2B+ spend is a very hard figure to justify by any government.

Despite the costs, however, I do believe that we need to seriously pick up the pace when it comes to work on both twinning and upgrading the TCH network, specifically in its most underdeveloped sections through BC and ON. It is very clear that not having a robust national highway network like the US is a major point of vulnerability.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by esquire

Here are some aerial shots of the accident site from the Winnipeg Free Press. Any accident reconstruction experts here? I have no idea what happened based on these pictures....

I think it's easy to see what happened. There is only a yield sign, not a stop sign, on the south section of the intersection, the bus driver was not required to stop there, and thought they could make it across but failed. The collision must have happened in the far right (south) lane of the intersection, the bus was spun and continued to the final resting place, most of the victims must have died from the fire. This is one of the most dangerous types of highway intersections, the undivided ones with two way traffic are perhaps even worse. Route 5 looks like a major enough highway to warrant a simple overpass. I think both drivers survived.