Highways in Canada

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

From about 2:30 to 3:10 in that video, it actually looks a lot like Southern Ontario. rolling hills with scattered trees around farms. Almost indistinguishable, really.

On the video maybe. In person it looks quite different. The hills in outhern Alberta I find to be steeper with a shorter distance before it starts dropping again. In southern Ontario the grades aren't as steep but the climb extends further.

Also it is visually just more arid. It's going to be brown until around May. Ontario starts to green up basically once the snow melts. I can guarantee you that most of those trees are planted as opposed to in Ontario the trees are what remains from the rest of them being clearcut. Also different species of trees. You don't find maples here for example.

[Innsertnamehere]

None of the trees are old growth, or at least very, very few. Ontario clearcut 160 years ago (most of Southern Ontario was settled between the 1840s and 1870s), which means there has been plenty of time for the planted trees along farm fields to grow into massive trees.

[1overcosc]

^ The scale of natural destruction in Southern Ontario in the 19th century is pretty big. Very little original ecosystem still exists pretty much anywhere south or west of about Peterborough or anywhere between Ottawa & Montreal. (The relatively sparsely populated area around Bancroft being really the only virgin wilderness in all of Southern Ontario).

In some places ecosystems have been reconstructed--the Larose Forest near Ottawa is an example--and in other areas nature has since reconquered lands that are no longer being farmed or were never farmed at all (merely clearcut and then left abandoned).

[Innsertnamehere]

Areas like muskoka were largely clear cut too, seeing photos of those areas in the 1850's show barren rock everywhere. 150 years lets nature recover though.

[SignalHillHiker]

CBC special about fatalities on NL roads. Some scenes of various highways.

• Video Link

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

None of the trees are old growth, or at least very, very few. Ontario clearcut 160 years ago (most of Southern Ontario was settled between the 1840s and 1870s), which means there has been plenty of time for the planted trees along farm fields to grow into massive trees.

Informative post. Thanks for providing that info.

[sonysnob]

Video of the 427 through western Toronto:

• Video Link

[ssiguy]

Thanks for the vid. Never been on the 427 north of the 401.

[Innsertnamehere]

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6410...s-to-ease-hwy-6-congestion-in-morriston/

The Highway 6 Morriston bypass received funding today. This project will see a 5km bypass built to 400 series standards around Morriston, which is currently a large bottleneck on Highway 6. The project also includes widening a large portion of the 401 to 10 lanes, for the part of the 401 that highway 6 interlines with. It also includes a reconstruction of the Hanlon Parkway's interchange with the 401.

[Horus]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6410...s-to-ease-hwy-6-congestion-in-morriston/

The Highway 6 Morriston bypass received funding today. This project will see a 5km bypass built to 400 series standards around Morriston, which is currently a large bottleneck on Highway 6. The project also includes widening a large portion of the 401 to 10 lanes, for the part of the 401 that highway 6 interlines with. It also includes a reconstruction of the Hanlon Parkway's interchange with the 401.

That is a long overdue improvement.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6410...s-to-ease-hwy-6-congestion-in-morriston/

The Highway 6 Morriston bypass received funding today. This project will see a 5km bypass built to 400 series standards around Morriston, which is currently a large bottleneck on Highway 6. The project also includes widening a large portion of the 401 to 10 lanes, for the part of the 401 that highway 6 interlines with. It also includes a reconstruction of the Hanlon Parkway's interchange with the 401.

This will relieve a huge problem and vastly improve the flow on Hwy 6.

From the map it won't be a direct connection to the Hanlon (and there's a quarry just southeast of the Hanlon/401 interchange so that limits options) but with only about 3 km distance to the bypass that's not a big deal, manageable with the additional lanes on the 401.


Image source from the original article

More of the area on Google Maps

[Franco401]

I assume this is part of a larger plan to link Guelph and Hamilton by freeway?

[Innsertnamehere]

Nope. Highway 6 isn't planned to be upgraded to a freeway, just an 80km/h rural roadway. there will eventually be an additional interchange at Highway 5 in Waterdown to eliminate all the stoplights, but its not going to be a full freeway.

[hipster duck]

It's amazing that there isn't a freeway between Guelph-KWC and Hamilton. These are two city regions of over 600,000 that are 50 km apart. In any other part of the world: the US, Europe and provinces like Quebec or Nova Scotia, there would have been a freeway built between these two ages ago. The Ontario 400-series highway system is still too hub-and-spoke with the aim of getting people in and out of Toronto.

I also hope that a freeway will lead to better transit service between the two cities. This sounds paradoxical, but it isn't. GO buses usually follow highway improvements, and it really allows them to keep a competitive schedule. There is a very curvy and old rail line between Guelph and Hamilton, but I think that upgrading it for service would be expensive and not terribly time-competitive in the end.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

It's amazing that there isn't a freeway between Guelph-KWC and Hamilton. These are two city regions of over 600,000 that are 50 km apart. In any other part of the world: the US, Europe and provinces like Quebec or Nova Scotia, there would have been a freeway built between these two ages ago. The Ontario 400-series highway system is still too hub-and-spoke with the aim of getting people in and out of Toronto.

I also hope that a freeway will lead to better transit service between the two cities. This sounds paradoxical, but it isn't. GO buses usually follow highway improvements, and it really allows them to keep a competitive schedule. There is a very curvy and old rail line between Guelph and Hamilton, but I think that upgrading it for service would be expensive and not terribly time-competitive in the end.

There is plans to build a highway 7 freeway between KW and Guelph.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

There is plans to build a highway 7 freeway between KW and Guelph.

I know. I think it's actually already under construction, or at least undergoing preliminary engineering work.

The Highway 7 bypass between KW and Guelph is even more necessary than this Highway 6 bypass, but both of these are extremely high up on the to-do list.

There are also plans to upgrade the rail line between Guelph and KW (really between KW and Georgetown) to allow all day, relatively frequent GO train service. This is even better.

When you think about it, KWC-Guelph-Hamilton-Brantford forms a ring city of over 1.5 million people - it would be Canada's fourth biggest metro! - but it has a transportation infrastructure that would make a third world city blush.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I know. I think it's actually already under construction, or at least undergoing preliminary engineering work.

The Highway 7 bypass between KW and Guelph is even more necessary than this Highway 6 bypass, but both of these are extremely high up on the to-do list.

There are also plans to upgrade the rail line between Guelph and KW (really between KW and Georgetown) to allow all day, relatively frequent GO train service. This is even better.

When you think about it, KWC-Guelph-Hamilton-Brantford forms a ring city of over 1.5 million people - it would be Canada's fourth biggest metro! - but it has a transportation infrastructure that would make a third world city blush.

Part of that is due to the fact that they are all in different counties/regions. Part of that is also because there is a lot of prime farmland there too.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Nope. Highway 6 isn't planned to be upgraded to a freeway, just an 80km/h rural roadway. there will eventually be an additional interchange at Highway 5 in Waterdown to eliminate all the stoplights, but its not going to be a full freeway.

Will it be 4 lanes at least? That is critically needed, the traffic counts there I believe are like 25,000 to 30,000 cars each day, which is far, far beyond the capacity of a 2-lane highway. That is even high for an uncontrolled 4-lane highway.

While transit would be useful between the cities in terms of buses, such could not efficiently be done with constant traffic delays.

[Innsertnamehere]

Other than through morriston, its already 4 lanes the whole way. The new bypass is going to be a freeway, but its never going to be a freeway all the way to Hamilton.

[eemy]

Highway 6 moves well along the entire length south of the 401 save for the section that this will bypass.