TCH east of Nipigon (La route transcanadienne à l'est de Nipigon)

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Loco101

It's still very expensive but would be a great idea .

IMO even the 2 + 1 should still bypass those small towns though. I'm still having in mind a Trans-Canada freeway in Northern Ontario, going up the 11 (because the terrain along Lake Superior Shore looks formidable). In return, though, the province should help businesses relocate to interchanges.

Edit: I hope I don't come off sounding aggressive.

That said, if there's political will, MTO should even look into twinning the Tri-town bypass and extending the 2 + 1 all the way to Hearst, with the tweak that the sections near interchanges must have 4 lanes. 101 coming from Timmins will need to interchange with 11 at a different spot because that interchange will be freeway-to-freeway style; the same should be done with 66 coming from Quebec and 655 too.

[Dengler Avenue]

Alternative to bypasses, we can also convert the highway through town into a divided 4-lane RIRO expressway with overpasses on both ends of the town. The only problem is that we will permanently split those towns into 2.

[Dengler Avenue]

https://ottawacitizen.com/transportation...wcm/b68fe646-7483-48b9-9337-8ea7f375ee32

Any thought? Or is Ontario always gonna be the bottleneck?

[Dengler Avenue]

What if Ontario restores the Northland railtrack to Beardmore and extends it to Winnipeg Centre Port (subject to approval by Manitoba provincial government) along TCH? This way, cross-country goods can be loaded onto Northland trains at Winnipeg, and unloaded at Rouyn-Noranda to be transported down QC 117 (A-15). Obviously passenger rail service will be included as well, like 1 or 2 passenger cars with herds of freight cars after them. It will be double-tracked too.

I wonder whether this, if feasible at all, can take out most of the truck traffic on TCH in Ontario. Clearly the province of Ontario can (and will) charge for transportation services reasonably.

Any thought?

Ps: Public (provincial in this case) ownership is key.

Surplus: The train can also provide emergency train ferry when TCH’s blocked.

[vid]

Not only was Thunder Bay's port significantly upgraded to handle the load, but when they did it, the MTO was doing major work on the Thunder Bay Expressway and the city was in the early stages of working on its repair schedule to the Harbour Expressway, which are the main routes accessing the port. Neither party took this need into account in their work. The city is currently upgrading the bridge that connects the port to the city so that it can handle heavy and large loads for the future, but that's a single project, not part of an ongoing process.

[Dengler Avenue]

I wonder if that’s indicative of the mindset “it’s the north; nothing can be done here”.

[Dengler Avenue]

TCH is closed in both directions at Pass Lake Road due to a 2-vehicle collision. There’s no detour unless OPP doesn’t mind passenger vehicles going off-road.

Edit: OPPCommunicationsNWR tweeted that roadway was blocked while ON511NWR tweeted that it’s closed.

Update: OPP has closed WB lanes and EB lanes remain open. Time to grade-separate?

Link: https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/pass-lake-collision-sends-occupants-to-hospital-985790

[F. Lionel]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

TCH is closed in both directions at Pass Lake Road due to a 2-vehicle collision. There’s no detour unless OPP doesn’t mind passenger vehicles going off-road.

Edit: OPPCommunicationsNWR tweeted that roadway was blocked while ON511NWR tweeted that it’s closed.

Update: OPP has closed WB lanes and EB lanes remain open. Time to grade-separate?

Absolutely... it was time when they were twinning that stretch of highway 2-3 years ago.

The issue there would be the proximity of the Flying J Truckstop to 11/17 on the west side of the highway and the hilltop upon which it sits as well as the the extreme grade on the east side of the highway and valley it seems to basically fall into.

Also on the west side is a short string of homes, all of which have direct highway access driveways that should have been linked by an access road to the Flying J when they were twinning the highway in the first place... but what's done is done and now we have to take that into account as well.

[vid]

Originally the discussion was to have the Flying J in the median, with EB traffic on one side and WB traffic much further west, and the intersection with Highway 587 serving the truck stop. I think something to do with property expropriations and water tables resulted in the change to the current configuration. I know people living along 587 don't like how that road interacts with 11/17. I've driven out there a couple times and that intersection is unreal. It's like something you'd build in Cities:Skylines with the cheats turned on.

[Dengler Avenue]

For people in Sudbury:

17W lanes are closed for construction: https://twitter.com/OPP_NER/status/1018897050371584001.

It's interesting that OPP doesn't simply make westbound traffic detour via City Road 55 between Lively and Whitefish.

[sonysnob]

^ Well for one reason, Highway 17 traffic would have to turn left at the end of Sudbury Road 55, crossing the eastbound lanes. That would create quite a queue.

For another reason, Sudbury Road 55 is very much a secondary road, and the western portion of it might not have been resurfaced since it was part of Highway 17 in the 1980s.

The road west of Sudbury is a pretty frustrating drive these days. Because of the freeway construction, Highway 17 is down to a single lane each way, and then immediately west of the freeway portion, another reconstruction project has closed one of the sets of passing lanes between Nairn and the divided highway. It's a long time between being able to pass slower vehicles through that stretch.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

^ Well for one reason, Highway 17 traffic would have to turn left at the end of Sudbury Road 55, crossing the eastbound lanes. That would create quite a queue.

For another reason, Sudbury Road 55 is very much a secondary road, and the western portion of it might not have been resurfaced since it was part of Highway 17 in the 1980s.

The road west of Sudbury is a pretty frustrating drive these days. Because of the freeway construction, Highway 17 is down to a single lane each way, and then immediately west of the freeway portion, another reconstruction project has closed one of the sets of passing lanes between Nairn and the divided highway. It's a long time between being able to pass slower vehicles through that stretch.

Are the slow vehicles usually trucks or vehicles that are too scared to go fast?

[Dengler Avenue]

Also, a naïve question about km numbers on exit markers:

Suppose that 417's extended to SSM, but that Transcanada Freeway follows 11 NW of North Bay and then 17 NW of Shabaqua Corners.

So through North Bay, the exits will be marked according to the km's of 417, which is increasing from Quebec border. For the purpose of this question, suppose that Highway 11 Cochrane-bound branches off 417 at km marker 512.

Now, how should the km numbers on the Transcanada Freeway be signed? Should they be increasing from 512, should they be reset and start from 1, should they carry over the km numbers from Highway 11, or should they now start from 1 at the Manitoba border? (Also, should this freeway be renumbered Highway 1 with Maple-leaf shield just like how it's done in Western Canada? )

Ps: This is one of the reasons as to why I think twinning should be done on 17 instead. It isn't a good one though.

Edit: I forgot to mention another option: We can alternatively keep the km numbers of Highway 11, but once the freeway reaches Nipigon, they will be marked in increasing order from 1510 (distance betweenness Nipigon and Québec border via 17/417) as if twinning is done on 17 instead. Imagine having a monument for km marker 2000 near Vermillion Bay. If done right, that can well boost the economy of the small town. Unfortunately a monument for km marker 1000 at 11/631 near Ameson will be a much harder sell...

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Also, a naïve question about km numbers on exit markers:

Suppose that 417's extended to SSM, but that Transcanada Freeway follows 11 NW of North Bay and then 17 NW of Shabaqua Corners.

So through North Bay, the exits will be marked according to the km's of 417, which is increasing from Quebec border. For the purpose of this question, suppose that Highway 11 Cochrane-bound branches off 417 at km marker 512.

Now, how should the km numbers on the Transcanada Freeway be signed? Should they be increasing from 512, should they be reset and start from 1, should they carry over the km numbers from Highway 11, or should they now start from 1 at the Manitoba border? (Also, should this freeway be renumbered Highway 1 with Maple-leaf shield just like how it's done in Western Canada? )

Ps: This is one of the reasons as to why I think twinning should be done on 17 instead. It isn't a good one though.

Edit: I forgot to mention another option: We can alternatively keep the km numbers of Highway 11, but once the freeway reaches Nipigon, they will be marked in increasing order from 1510 (distance betweenness Nipigon and Québec border via 17/417) as if twinning is done on 17 instead. Imagine having a monument for km marker 2000 near Vermillion Bay. If done right, that can well boost the economy of the small town. Unfortunately a monument for km marker 1000 at 11/631 near Ameson will be a much harder sell...

We could renumber highways 11 and 17 west of Thunder Bay. Problem solved.

[Dengler Avenue]

My thinking, though, is that the km markers should be reserved only for this Trans-Canada Freeway, so that they should indicate the distance from Whiteshell, MB to Rigaud, QC, as opposed to Toronto. I think that most (truck) traffic heads towards the GTA anyway, but it’s gonna be very misleading for those heading towards Québec and/or Atlantic Canada.

Maybe it’s just me.

Another alternative will be to renumber the whole (future) freeway, even including the segment east of North Bay, as Highway 1 with the maple-leaf shield, instead of the current 17/417, but replacing the current 417 shields for the first 187 km can be a hassle.

[wave46]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

My thinking, though, is that the km markers should be reserved only for this Trans-Canada Freeway, so that they should indicate the distance from Whiteshell, MB to Rigaud, QC, as opposed to Toronto. I think that most (truck) traffic heads towards the GTA anyway, but it’s gonna be very misleading for those heading towards Québec and/or Atlantic Canada.

Maybe it’s just me.

Another alternative will be to renumber the whole (future) freeway, even including the segment east of North Bay, as Highway 1 with the maple-leaf shield, instead of the current 17/417, but replacing the current 417 shields for the first 187 km can be a hassle.

I think it might be you.

I'm not sure that many people except the passionate few really care about the km markers. Nor do people use them as directional guides.

Renumbering the whole freeway will confuse just about everyone, especially in areas where the 417 has existed for almost 50 years.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by wave46

I think it might be you.

I'm not sure that many people except the passionate few really care about the km markers. Nor do people use them as directional guides.

Renumbering the whole freeway will confuse just about everyone, especially in areas where the 417 has existed for almost 50 years.

Why renumber the 417 when it has the low numbers starting at the QC border?

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Why renumber the 417 when it has the low numbers starting at the QC border?

No I meant keeping the km markers as are, but renumering the highway as highway 1, coated with the maple-leaf shield.

As a matter of fact, only that. Never the King’s Highway Shield.

[Dengler Avenue]

https://mobile.twitter.com/OPP_COMM_NER/status/1020343398887313408

I’m guessing one of the culverts collapsed again, as before...

When will the province learn...

Also should i still tell people they’re better off waiting at White River (heading east$ and Wawa (heading west)??

[Dengler Avenue]

Detour via 41 -> 60 -> 11.

Update at 7:30 pm: Alternating traffic right now.

Update at 9:25 pm: It’s closed again. Detour in effect.