There is no real benefit to twinning Highway 17 between Nipigon and Sault Ste Marie, it's a scenic route. There are so many hills that it takes transports just as long to travel it between North Bay and Thunder Bay as it does for them to take Highway 11, so most take the latter. If they twinned it, it would become safer for it's 2,000 daily travelers but would probably be a less picturesque drive, and at this point, "picturesque drive" is all that region has. At some points it could be further improved but it doesn't need to be a full twinned freeway.
Even 11 doesn't need to be a full freeway, simply twinning it would probably suffice. All the level intersections can stay. Barely anyone uses them; the largest towns along it have nothing left in them. You could make that highway was wide as you want to, no one would give a shit. It would actually help, since there are lots of mines up there and limited opportunities to truck product out with rail lines closing or giving preference to oil.
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Originally Posted by swimmer_spe
Wouldn't using the current Bypass make Thunder Bay almost ready for it?
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There have been two somewhat serious proposals in the past for by-passes that completely avoid the city:
The green line would connect Nipigon and Raith, completely by-passing the Thunder Bay area. Theoretically this would only serve Trans-Canada traffic, around 2,500 vehicles a day, but it's really unlikely due to the terrain of the area (hill, lake, or swamp) and the fact that they've just spend tens of millions on the highway going into the city itself.
The pink line is a slightly more plausible idea, going from about Highway 527 to a village called Intola, where it would merge with 102 (itself a highway through hills, swamps, and lakes). It would intersect dozens of streets and probably piss off the several thousand people who live in the rural area north of the city (lawyers, doctors, politicians, business owners; a cottage country where people literally own entire lakes). Unless it's
absolutely necessary for economic reasons, the people living there will (and can) prevent it, so it's not even brought up except by people living in the growing suburbs along Highway 102 in the city itself.
And since the province actually started building 11/17 to higher standards east of the city, any suggestion of either of these has basically disappeared.
BTW whoever chose the names on that map is a moron. I've never heard of Mabella, there is no Dublin, and Pine Portage is a hydroelectric dam. Where did Nipigon go? What a stupid map.