Highways in Canada

[isotack]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

According to Wikipedia, it was Al Palladini (M.T.O. under Mike Harris) who outsourced winter maintenance of provincial highways...

Sooner or later this had to be Mike Harris fault.

[MolsonExport]

well mr six toes did usher in the Nonsense revolution.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I will say this about my experience with Quebec highways - back in 2015 I drove from Toronto to Montreal during a winter storm, where there was freezing rain from about Gananoque to almost Montreal, and then snow on the island. The 401 was extremely treacherous and slippery, and it was so bad I ended up driving part of the way on a parallel county road that was in better shape. I got back on the 401 before Cornwall, but when I crossed the boundary into Quebec, the highway suddenly turned from slippery to clear, despite freezing rain and snow getting heavier. The drive on A-20 was a nice break. Despite the storm in the Montreal area, area highways including A-20, A-40 and others were kept very well.

Although this is an anecdotal experience and I know there have been some notable blunders around snow removal in Quebec, this was back at a time when Ontario had outsourced highway winter maintenance and there were some major problems on the 401 and 416 in Eastern Ontario, and there had been several major pileups along various stretches of the 401 between Belleville and Cornwall. I don’t know what the situation has been since the 2018 election but I know that was a major issue in Eastern Ontario during the Wynne years.

As you say, this is anecdotal. Someone has to drive on the shitty roads prior to them being cleaned. Snowfall isn't something you can get ahead of, it needs to fall before it can be cleared. Perhaps the Ontario plows were 5 miles behind you, and the guy driving 10 miles behind you is saying "this is awesome, they really know how to clear the snow here". And then you lucked into hitting Quebec shortly after they cleaned the roads, but guaranteed there was somebody a half hour earlier bitching about how shitty the roads were.

[J.OT13]

The MTO is in the process of replacing the Queensway (417) bridge over the Trillium Line. It was supposed to be a four day job, July 2 to early morning July 6, but "unforeseen challenges" has extended the highway closure.

New highway segments were built on site. The old highway bridge was demolished using traditional methods and the new decks were slid into place using tracks.

Originally Posted by IntoTheCore

This morning at the O-Train/Preston overpass:

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Very cool...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments...ing/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Live Stream cameras:

https://presrbr.ceeplayer.net/

[craner]

^That is very cool - thanks for posting.

[Coldrsx]

Edmonton is FINALLY (only 15yrs late) getting its Terwillegar Drive upgraded to a freeway from the Whitemud Drive to the Anthony Henday Drive ring road in the SW. This area has had and continues to outpace growth in any other part of the city and regularly experiences significant AM/PM congestion.

The first significant infrastructure project in Edmonton as part of our Provincial Recovery Plan.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/...ar-drive-in-southwest-edmonton-1.5641988

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Edmonton is FINALLY (only 15yrs late) getting its Terwillegar Drive upgraded to a freeway from the Whitemud Drive to the Anthony Henday Drive ring road in the SW. This area has had and continues to outpace growth in any other part of the city and regularly experiences significant AM/PM congestion.

The first significant infrastructure project in Edmonton as part of our Provincial Recovery Plan.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/...ar-drive-in-southwest-edmonton-1.5641988

I wonder whether we should move the designation of Highway 2 onto the freeway later on so it looks like Highway 2 is a freeway even through the city.

[Coldrsx]

I spoke too soon... only from Rabbit Hill Road to AHD... leaving two sets of lights and only 2 lanes in each direction for about another KM before it hits the Whitemud.

Stupid.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

I wonder whether we should move the designation of Highway 2 onto the freeway later on so it looks like Highway 2 is a freeway even through the city.

Why? It isn't done in other provinces, like Ontario.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Why? It isn't done in other provinces, like Ontario.

It has been done in BC and New Brunswick, and most recently in Saskatchewan with the new Regina bypass. And in limited cases it has been done in Ontario (notably the Conestoga Parkway in Kitchener).

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

I spoke too soon... only from Rabbit Hill Road to AHD... leaving two sets of lights and only 2 lanes in each direction for about another KM before it hits the Whitemud.

Stupid.

Won't that produce an enormous bottleneck that will defeat the purpose of adding lanes elsewhere? Also, just exactly what is the City building as part of Phase 1? You'd think between the City and province that they could find a bit more money and do the entire stretch.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

Won't that produce an enormous bottleneck that will defeat the purpose of adding lanes elsewhere? Also, just exactly what is the City building as part of Phase 1? You'd think between the City and province that they could find a bit more money and do the entire stretch.

Terwillegar could be expanded to 10 lanes in each direction, but if the interchange at the Whitemud isn't improved there will always be northbound congestion on Terwillegar and westbound congestion on the Whitemud.

[craner]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Edmonton is FINALLY (only 15yrs late) getting its Terwillegar Drive upgraded to a freeway from the Whitemud Drive to the Anthony Henday Drive ring road in the SW. This area has had and continues to outpace growth in any other part of the city and regularly experiences significant AM/PM congestion.

The first significant infrastructure project in Edmonton as part of our Provincial Recovery Plan.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/...ar-drive-in-southwest-edmonton-1.5641988

Nice!
This pandemic is turning out to be a great thing for accelerating the schedule on a number of Alberta infrastructure projects.

[kev_427]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Edmonton is FINALLY (only 15yrs late) getting its Terwillegar Drive upgraded to a freeway from the Whitemud Drive to the Anthony Henday Drive ring road in the SW. This area has had and continues to outpace growth in any other part of the city and regularly experiences significant AM/PM congestion.

The first significant infrastructure project in Edmonton as part of our Provincial Recovery Plan.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/...ar-drive-in-southwest-edmonton-1.5641988

Doesn't a freeway require interchanges? Nowhere does it say they're building any new interchanges. Just a new bridge over Henday.

Also Terwillegar is no longer being considered as a future freeway. https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/turning-terwillegar-drive-into-terwillegar-expressway-1.4599959

[craner]

^Well that sucks.
Build the freeway ffs.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by craner

^Well that sucks.
Build the freeway ffs.

That news story is from last September. Did anything change this week?

Edit: Based on the province's news release doesn't sound like a freeway to me.

[Innsertnamehere]

https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-1883

The Ontario provincial government has proposed several highway projects in the province be exempt from the Environmental Assessment process, in an effort to speed them up. They are all projects that had EAs previously completed, however have had their 5 year validation period end, requiring them to be redone. The legislation proposes to allow the projects to proceed based on the work done more than 5 years ago.

While this is good news in speeding up projects in the province, it also offers a glimpse into what MTO is planning on building in the next little while. Since the PCs formed government, MTO has stopped publishing it's 5 year highways plan, leaving lots of questions on what the Ministry is planning. The legislation requires any project listed to be constructed in the next 10 years, or the EA process will again be required, which means the projects listed are likely to be built in the next few years;

Projects previously funded that are listed, so not surprised to see them:

- 401 Widening Tilbury to London;
- Highway 3 Widening Essex to Leamington;
- Highway 6 Morriston Bypass, 401/6 through running widening, and new interchange on the Hanlon Expressway to replace the existing County road 34 and Maltby Road intersections on the Hanlon Expressway;
- New highway 7 from Kitchener to Guelph;
- Credit River Bridge replacement;
- 417 extension to Renfrew;
- Highway 400 extension to Sudbury, including upgrading the approach to Highway 17;
- Highway 11/17 Twinning from Kenora to the Manitoba Border;
- Leslie Street interchange reconstruction on the 401 (this is already well under construction, not sure why an exception is needed); and
- Credit River bridge replacement on the QEW.

New projects that haven't been confirmed for funding, which make them interesting:

- Westchester Bourne and Dorchester Road interchange replacements on the 401 outside of London;
- New interchanges on the Hanlon Expressway between Laird Road and Wellington Street in Guelph;
- Widening of the 401 from Townline Road in Cambridge to the Halton Region Boundary (I don't believe MTO has completed the EA for the widening from the Halton Region boundary to Highway 25, so I imagine they'll do that shortly before constructing it, not requiring a TESR exception);
- New interchange at Highway 6 and Highway 5 in Waterdown;
- Widening of Highway 35/7 around Lindsay;
- Operational improvements to Highway 7 from Peterborough to Perth, including new passing lanes, intersection improvements, and 4 laning around Perth;
- New interchange at County Road 30 and the 401 in Brighton;
- Highway 400 widening from Highway 9 to Highway 11 (note that the stretch between King Road and Highway 9 still isn't formally funded, however all but 2km is currently under construction, so I imagine an exception for the 2km remaining wasn't required); and
- a new interchange on Highway 11 south of Huntsville at South Mary Lake Road (currently at grade).

[Dengler Avenue]

An update on the last one: ON-11 at Muskoka Road 44 has so far been converted to RIRO as of March 23.
From K Town to Manitoba border, it’s just the 17. 11 ends at Rainy River before crossing into Minnesota.
Upgrade of Highway 6 and Highway 7? Yes please! If the latter’s done right, I will just use Highway 7 to reach Ottawa from here on.
Also did you forget to mention the connector between Highways 400 & 404 aka Bradford Bypass?

[bomberjet]

Highly technical term:

Highway 11/17 four laning (Date of TESR: May 1997)

haha. So the environmental assessment from 1997 is adequate?

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Highly technical term:

Highway 11/17 four laning (Date of TESR: May 1997)

haha. So the environmental assessment from 1997 is adequate?

If you look at the map that I shared in the Manitoba Highway thread, I also included the route of the 4-lane for the Thunder Bay - Nipigon Corridor. Just type in "Pass Lake, ON", and "scroll northeast" until you get to before Nipigon.
When I was researching each contract, it seemed to me that some were updated and others in the process of being updated. Hence, the short answer is no.
Ps:
(1) Emergency detour routes, service roads and interchanges weren't included in any of the designs. I added those.
(2) Researching all of them took a Sunday afternoon.
(3) Here's the map that I've been drawing up: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11qPd7-lLyG1jFj9N6y9ioaWMABkC1Mj0&usp=sharing. I've made sure to distinguish M.T.O.'s proposals from mine.