Southdale Road Improvements

[CanadianTalk]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Not as of 9am today. My guess is by tomorrow as it looked like most of the paving was done and they had painted more of the line to the west (not that the single yellow line would take more than 5 minutes anyway).

Thanks for the update! It unfortunately doesn't look like they will finish the widening by the beginning of December (planned end date). Construction started in May and it took over 5 months to finish one side.

Though technically the first stage of this project was to temporarily widen Southdale to the south so 2-way traffic can get by, but I can't remember how long that took (I've only been on that part of Southdale a few times since construction started).

Wonder how much of the EB side they can get done in just under 2 months.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by CanadianTalk

Thanks for the update! It unfortunately doesn't look like they will finish the widening by the beginning of December (planned end date). Construction started in May and it took over 5 months to finish one side.

Though technically the first stage of this project was to temporarily widen Southdale to the south so 2-way traffic can get by, but I can't remember how long that took (I've only been on that part of Southdale a few times since construction started).

Wonder how much of the EB side they can get done in just under 2 months.

I think they recently said this will go to the end of the season right before Christmas. But I think they basically only have to rip out the temporary lanes, put in curbs, sidewalks, bike lanes, and pave it, I think the heavy underground stuff was done in the spring. A lot of "I think" lol

[Djeffery]

And traffic has now flipped over to the north side of the road.

[CanadianTalk]

Roundabout will be constructed at Southdale and Colonel Talbot next year. Was originally planned for 2024, so it's nice to see this expedited.

There will be a public update meeting on November 23 on Zoom. Also some renderings on the website.

https://getinvolved.london.ca/southdaleroundabout

Project notice: https://getinvolved.london.ca/33276/widgets/138155/documents/92385

[Djeffery]

I'm putting my house on the market and hopefully getting out of here before that starts lol. That and the 401 at Highbury are going to be killers for my Byron-Woodstock daily commute.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by CanadianTalk

Roundabout will be constructed at Southdale and Colonel Talbot next year. Was originally planned for 2024, so it's nice to see this expedited.

There will be a public update meeting on November 23 on Zoom. Also some renderings on the website.

https://getinvolved.london.ca/southdaleroundabout

Project notice: https://getinvolved.london.ca/33276/widgets/138155/documents/92385

Great news to see this move up the schedule, so are they going to make Southdale 4 lanes from Bostwick to Col Talbot at the same time it does not appear to be part of the same project.

I would hope the city is not dumb enough...but they likely are

[CanadianTalk]

Public update video and slides (including the drawings) have been posted of the new roundabout at Southdale and Colonel Talbot.

https://getinvolved.london.ca/southdaleroundabout

Big improvements compared to what is currently there now. Southdale and Col Talbot will be widened to 4 lanes approaching the roundabout, and will get new sidewalks and in-boulevard protected cycling paths.

Here is a rendering:

[MrSlippery519]

Are they making Southdale 4 lanes from Bostwick to here then at the same time? I cant listen to the presentation currently but it does not look like it?

[CanadianTalk]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

Are they making Southdale 4 lanes from Bostwick to here then at the same time? I cant listen to the presentation currently but it does not look like it?

No, Southdale is only being widened from the roundabout to the Pomeroy apartments.

Right now on the city's website, that section of Southdale (Bostwick to Col Talbot) is scheduled to be widened in 2031, but they said in the presentation that since the city is currently in the process of creating a new transportation plan (Mobility Master Plan), there could be opportunities to push it ahead sooner especially since there is a lot of new growth in the area.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by CanadianTalk

Public update video and slides (including the drawings) have been posted of the new roundabout at Southdale and Colonel Talbot.

https://getinvolved.london.ca/southdaleroundabout

Big improvements compared to what is currently there now. Southdale and Col Talbot will be widened to 4 lanes approaching the roundabout, and will get new sidewalks and in-boulevard protected cycling paths.

Here is a rendering:

what about that crazy winding part of Col Talbot, between Southdale and Byron Baseline? will it be widened/straightened?
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9515796,-81.3219293,669m/data=!3m1!1e3

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

what about that crazy winding part of Col Talbot, between Southdale and Byron Baseline? will it be widened/straightened?
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9515796,-81.3219293,669m/data=!3m1!1e3

What, and lose that fun drive? I hope not. This is the actual snake hill. They do plan to reroute Commissioners down the reservoir hill at some undefined point in time but I've never heard of any plan to try to straighten Col Talbot. I think it would be pretty difficult to do since there isn't any really good option to reroute it to straighten it.

[Spoofy]

.

[Djeffery]

You would need quite a bit of that pit to angle Colonel Talbot to the east to make a gradual curve and drop. I'm not sure there is the huge need to do that there. Commissioners will start way back at Cranbrook, you can see the right of way to the left of the road when you are at those lights facing west. Unless they want to simply excavate Colonel Talbot and make it a straight line like Boler, but I'm no engineer, so I'm not sure if there is enough room past Four Winds to safely grade the road down to Baseline in a straight line.

[Djeffery]

The lanes are painted on the new EB side. Not sure if they are going to put in the sidewalks and bike lanes on the south side of the road before opening it up, or if it will open fairly soon as is.

[CanadianTalk]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

The lanes are painted on the new EB side. Not sure if they are going to put in the sidewalks and bike lanes on the south side of the road before opening it up, or if it will open fairly soon as is.

During the Q&A portion of the Southdale roundabout public meeting, someone had asked about the progress of this widening, and I believe one of the presenters said that it's possible that the sidewalk/bike path installation may not be finished until next year, but the road definitely would be done by then, so I guess we could expect the EB lanes to open up soon.

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by CanadianTalk

No, Southdale is only being widened from the roundabout to the Pomeroy apartments.

Right now on the city's website, that section of Southdale (Bostwick to Col Talbot) is scheduled to be widened in 2031, but they said in the presentation that since the city is currently in the process of creating a new transportation plan (Mobility Master Plan), there could be opportunities to push it ahead sooner especially since there is a lot of new growth in the area.

I hope they just widen the rest of Southdale and do the roundabout next year. Makes absolutley no sense the city would cause headaches for a roundabout, and then to widen the rest of Southdale. Just do it all at once.

[Djeffery]

With the budget crunch and other roads that were delayed, they definitely aren't going to just decide to tack on that rather large project onto the roundabout. That distance is almost double the length of the project that isn't even done yet. I think once the roundabout is done, you will see traffic on Southdale flow a lot better though

[Djeffery]

Drove down Southdale today and the eastbound side was fully open, the westbound side had barrels in the right lane still, although nothing jumped out at me as to why they haven't opened all those lanes either. Certainly nice to have turning lanes again so you don't get stuck behind someone turning into Home Depot or Bostwick.

[Pimpmasterdac]

I just drove down Southdale yesterday and all the lanes were open both East and westbound. I believe that day they were getting rid of some of the merge signs that were still on the westbound lanes. Traffic flows really great up to Bostwick road, should hopefully help some of the congestion near Wonderland.

[jammer139]

Contract award paperwork for new roundabout at Southdale and Colonel Talbot.


https://pub-london.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=97926