Highways in Canada

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

LOL, like how Toronto stopped a freeway being built in 1971 that would have destroyed places like Little Italy and Chinatown? Toronto hasn't built a new hwy in the city centre in 46 years so I don't know what you are talking about. Also unlike almost every other North American city Vancouver included, Toronto didn't rip up it's streetcars to make way for cars.

Yes Toronto made mistakes in the past but show me a north American city that didn't put the car first in the last century. Montreal actually built more hwy's in it's core then Toronto ever did. It's not a bad thing just a fact.


Go ahead, take a look for yourself ssiguy
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Toront...502ab4c477!8m2!3d43.653226!4d-79.3831843

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Montrea...38211fefef!8m2!3d45.5016889!4d-73.567256

If Toronto is putting the car first I'd hate to be whatever is second.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

this is great. Damn, Montreal is on a roll....why did it have to happen after I was long gone?

Wow, the hospital seems massive! I see it from afar from work, but didn't expect to be that big.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Yes it can, I drove from Vegas over the Cascades to Portland 2 winters ago in a rear wheel drive (Mustang). White knuckled for a good 3 hrs of driving but fun.

Another thing in common. I experienced winter weather in a rear wheel drive Mustang too. That car got written off.

[niwell]

Interestingly enough so have I. My dad had a 91 Mustang GT that was one of the cars I learned to drive with in Calgary. Made it without a scratch but not without a couple harrowing experiences.

[WhipperSnapper]

Father's car too. Think it was an 89. I lost all traction on a windy gravel road with an inch of snow on the ground.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by Andy6

If Toronto is putting the car first I'd hate to be whatever is second.

LOL, so true. The only thing traffic wise Toronto can learn from Montreal is creating better bike lanes through the core.

[SignalHillHiker]

The Outer Ring Road this morning (had to run my boss completely to the other side of town).

To the left, JUST barely over the horizon, is YYT near Torbay. Most of the city is to the right, but it does loop around the hills closer to the coast right out to the airport. All that area was amalgamated into the city in 1992 or something around there. It used to be a road trip for students in St. John's to go there playing sports - permission slips and the works. I can't believe how much this city has spread (100% the worst of suburbia, there is not a single redeeming factor) in my lifetime.





This is probably a little higher up than Signal Hill. In the distance, you're looking down at Confederation Building. The discolouration on the hill behind Confederation Building is subdivisions in the East End.

[ssiguy]

Admittedly I should have been more specific about my analogy between Toronto and Montreal.

I was referring to the Gardiner a downtown freeway that is most akin to the freeway being replaced in downtown Montreal. Considering Toronto is spending billion on it's renewal of the Waterfront, I find it shocking how they are still willing to build a NEW Gardiner extension that still will cut the Waterfront off from the rest of the city. The Gardiner east of Church should be trenched with buildings over parkland over top.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Admittedly I should have been more specific about my analogy between Toronto and Montreal.

I was referring to the Gardiner a downtown freeway that is most akin to the freeway being replaced in downtown Montreal. Considering Toronto is spending billion on it's renewal of the Waterfront, I find it shocking how they are still willing to build a NEW Gardiner extension that still will cut the Waterfront off from the rest of the city. The Gardiner east of Church should be trenched with buildings over parkland over top.

The waterfront is going to be cut off as long as the railway is there too.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Admittedly I should have been more specific about my analogy between Toronto and Montreal.

I was referring to the Gardiner a downtown freeway that is most akin to the freeway being replaced in downtown Montreal. Considering Toronto is spending billion on it's renewal of the Waterfront, I find it shocking how they are still willing to build a NEW Gardiner extension that still will cut the Waterfront off from the rest of the city. The Gardiner east of Church should be trenched with buildings over parkland over top.

It's not most akin at all. It's apples and oranges. One was built as an elevated freeway over heavy industry that has been undergoing reclamation as a mixed use community since the 1970s. Burying it is exponentially more complex and costly than decking the highway in Montreal. It will cost a helluva lot more than all the monies invested through Waterfront Toronto too. Think things out before you post.

The right turn lanes that I've shown have been removed presented a far bigger barrier that the Gardiner itself. The Gardiner elevated form is less of a barrier than the surface route in Chicago. I'm glad Toronto didn't go that route. It would be nice were it buried however, the greening and traffic calming underway below it and the building up of towers around it make it barely noticeable to anyone not obsessed by its presence.

It's rather amusing to hear the Gardiner being such a barrier to a supporter of elevated Skytrain along Eglinton,etc. instead of underground.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by Airboy

TCH closed near Craigellachie East of Sicamous.

Appears to be a mud slide and washout. This will be a hard route to bypass.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/highway-1-closure-drivebc-1.4153269

Talked to friends who live near Shelter Bay, apparently everyone is being diverted south at Revelstoke on 23 to Nakusp and then 6 over the Pinnacles to Vernon

That's insane. The Trans Canada is now diverted across two small ferries across Arrow lake and a wicked stretch of extremely narrow and winding mountain highway for the next two days. If you're headed that way.. AVOID

[240glt]

Shelter Bay ferry terminal

Ain't nobody going anywhere fo a LONG time

[Rollerstud98]

Family friends who were headed to Sicamous and left last night just got on the ferry a couple hours ago. Pretty crazy

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by 240glt

Talked to friends who live near Shelter Bay, apparently everyone is being diverted south at Revelstoke on 23 to Nakusp and then 6 over the Pinnacles to Vernon

That's insane. The Trans Canada is now diverted across two small ferries across Arrow lake and a wicked stretch of extremely narrow and winding mountain highway for the next two days. If you're headed that way.. AVOID

Back about 10 years ago there was a slide this time of year near Golden. All traffic was stopped at Revelstoke. I found out a bout the highway crossing the lake. I think I was the last one on the ferry, and the last ferry that night.

The terrain is not suited for multiple highways.

[VANRIDERFAN]

I think it was 3 years ago that one of the bridges on the TCH became unstable due to flooding and I had to take that detour from Sicamous to Revelstoke via the ferries. That piece of road to Nakusp is one I would never want to do at night!

[Bobert]

If the bridge is structurally compromised, will they twin it?

I'm not sure how situations like these are usually resolved but it would make sense to twin it as part of the overall improvement project to the Alberta border.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by Bobert

If the bridge is structurally compromised, will they twin it?

I'm not sure how situations like these are usually resolved but it would make sense to twin it as part of the overall improvement project to the Alberta border.

I'm pretty sure that the bridge was replaced with a new twin bridge this year.

[craner]

Originally Posted by Bobert

If the bridge is structurally compromised, will they twin it?

I'm not sure how situations like these are usually resolved but it would make sense to twin it as part of the overall improvement project to the Alberta border.

. . . to be completed over the next 100 years.

[speedog]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

I'm pretty sure that the bridge was replaced with a new twin bridge this year.

Nope, it's a single bridge.

That aside, if this section had been upgraded to a freeway style level like is being done east of Golden we probably wouldn't be hearing of problems like this as much.

Of course mother nature can always throw a curve ball like the 2013 floods in Alberta that washed out the TransCanada at Canmore but it's quite difficult and expensive to plan and build for something like that.

Another bad section is this area between Golden and Roger's Pass - I've lost count of the number of times this section has been closed due to mudslides - Google Streetview link. Part of the problem is that it's about 500 meters of roadway that would have to be built differently - maybe across the river but another roadblock is that it is in a national park which introduces more complications.

Landscaping won't help much either because the source of all of this mud is a very large and unstable area on the mountainside to the south of the highway - Google Maps satellite view, about 1.5km long by 500 meters wide.

[Denscity]

I'm loving all the Trans Canada traffic coming through Castlegar on highway 3. Wish it was always this busy. Hotels are packed!