London Roads

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Clarke Road is now open again between Huron and Fanshawe.

Woot- now I can get to the Parkside 9... if it were open that is

For those who don't know, the Parkside 9 is a free 9 hole pitch & putt golf course maintained by the city at Clarke & Fanshawe. Great way to practice your short game, or play a game that doesn't take all day.

https://london.ca/living-london/parks-facilities/golf-course/fanshawe-golf-course

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Woot- now I can get to the Parkside 9... if it were open that is

For those who don't know, the Parkside 9 is a free 9 hole pitch & putt golf course maintained by the city at Clarke & Fanshawe. Great way to practice your short game, or play a game that doesn't take all day.

https://london.ca/living-london/parks-facilities/golf-course/fanshawe-golf-course

Yeah, it's a cool little course. Being free was nice. It was designed with accessibility in mind for people with mobility issues. I used to take my son there when he was first learning to golf. He'd drag along his entire bag on a cart, I carried my putter and pitching wedge. Wasn't unusual to see someone drop 4 or 5 balls on the tee and practice those short shots.

For Par 3, I really enjoyed Cedarbrook Gardens. It was on Fanshawe just east of Highbury, been closed for probably 10 or more years. It had a garden centre out front and this hidden gem of a short course right behind it. It had water and undulating greens, really fun to play. I also played the par 3 course at Greenhills a fair amount years ago, and it was open to the public. Now it's closed as well, as is the par 3 and the driving range on Oxford by Fleetway 40.

[Djeffery]

Highbury will be closed both ways from tomorrow (Thursday) thru Sunday from Hamilton to Commissioners while crews pour concrete on the northbound bridge. They are definitely moving at a quicker pace than last year.

[Djeffery]

Construction recently started on the new Dingman Drive 401 overpass. I wasn't even aware it was being replaced until I saw the "New Bridge" Ontario construction sign on Dingman near White Oaks Rd the other day. I saw the work beside the highway and thought it was sewer work or something. New bridge should be finished in 2022. And for those who say the city never plans ahead, part of this project involves a wider centre support beam in the 401 median to allow Dingman to be expanded in 20-25 years.

[jammer139]

That would be MTO lead not City.

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Construction recently started on the new Dingman Drive 401 overpass. I wasn't even aware it was being replaced until I saw the "New Bridge" Ontario construction sign on Dingman near White Oaks Rd the other day. I saw the work beside the highway and thought it was sewer work or something. New bridge should be finished in 2022. And for those who say the city never plans ahead, part of this project involves a wider centre support beam in the 401 median to allow Dingman to be expanded in 20-25 years.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Construction recently started on the new Dingman Drive 401 overpass. I wasn't even aware it was being replaced until I saw the "New Bridge" Ontario construction sign on Dingman near White Oaks Rd the other day. I saw the work beside the highway and thought it was sewer work or something. New bridge should be finished in 2022. And for those who say the city never plans ahead, part of this project involves a wider centre support beam in the 401 median to allow Dingman to be expanded in 20-25 years.

Yes, this is a provincial project and not the city's.

As part of the 6-laning project on the 401 between Tilbury and London, the existing 6-lane stretch from the 402 to Wellington is included in the project scope.

My guess is that an additional lane or two each way will be added between these interchanges, and have 8 lanes running to Highbury as part of the rail and Pond Mills underpass replacements as well as the Higbhbury overpass replacement.

So in order to do this, the Digman Drive overpass needs to be to be replaced.
-The 401 bridge over Digman Creek, 'recently' rebuilt in 2008, was designed for easy expansion. The Wonderland underpass was too.

-----

EDIT: you can see it here in this link. Zoom to the 401 between 402 and Wellington. Says 4-6 lane widening even though it is already 6 lanes. lol.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontarios-highway-programs#section-1

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by jammer139

That would be MTO lead not City.

And it was the city that approached the MTO and asked (and is paying for) that centre support to be built with future expansion in mind.

[jammer139]

Some of the roadway curbs are now poured on King St between Talbot and Richmond. Grading the roadway is also started. Could see base coat of asphalt soon and then sidewalk finishing. The next block east is still under heavy construction with large sewer pipes still being installed. Hopefully they planned for the two future Ayerswood towers and Southside tower on south side of road by pre-positioning the underground sewers and utility hookups. Sadly I would doubt it and we will see the road dug up again to hookup these future towers.

[Truenorth00]

An alternative view on Wonderland widening:

• Video Link

[jammer139]

Base coat of asphalt is now down on King St between Talbot and Richmond.

[jammer139]

Pouring the base concrete for the sidewalks on King St between Talbot and Richmond this week. Believe they plan to top it with paving stones.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

An alternative view on Wonderland widening:

• Video Link

London loves its stroads. City planning officials think stroads are the best way to promote the car culture that rules supreme in London, but if you add some bike lanes and a sidewalk, everyone should be happy!!

Show me a London stroad, and I will show you an extremely ugly suburban landscape.

[jammer139]

Hyde Park and Sunningdale Rd intersection closed last week to be reconstructed as a round-a-bout. Hopefully they design it to accommodate the widening of Hyde Park and Sunningdale Rd's to 5 lanes. Alas we already know that the City planners will not as that would require vision.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Hyde Park and Sunningdale Rd intersection closed last week to be reconstructed as a round-a-bout. Hopefully they design it to accommodate the widening of Hyde Park and Sunningdale Rd's to 5 lanes. Alas we already know that the City planners will not as that would require vision.

Well since the Wonderland/Sunningdale roundabout is two lanes, I'd expect this one to be as well. Same goes for the one proposed at Adelaide/Sunningdale. I'm not sure if one is proposed for Highbury too - that would leave Richmond as the only major signalized intersection on Sunningdale.

One day we'll see all these N/S roads widened to Sunningdale, and Sunningdale itself widened between Hyde Park and Highbury. That would reduce the need to 6-lane part of Fanshawe as that would be a pretty intense undertaking (probably from Wonderland to Adelaide).

[Djeffery]

First coat down on Highbury at the river south of Hamilton. They are definitely making quicker progress on this side compared to last year.

[Djeffery]

https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/reta...P03usBi9LGu2BPqwD8gdnc3NGAUWcgR1Cizab8aw

Businesses in the small building at the SE corner of Richmond and Fanshawe have been given 90 day eviction notices by the city, after the city expropriated the property for intersection improvements. I'm in favour of the road work, but really, is the city actually going to do anything before next spring now? As the London Audio guy says, he's not going to be able to do anything in 90 days, and that will be heading into the Christmas season as well.

[Pimpmasterdac]

Likely utility relocation to prepare for the intersection improvements. The issue was the property owner could've resolved this earlier but dragged out the process to expropriation. It wasn't a complete surprise as these improvements have been 5+ years in the making. There would always be a reason to wait longer, when that intersection a complete shitshow and needs improvements ASAP.

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Businesses in the small building at the SE corner of Richmond and Fanshawe have been given 90 day eviction notices by the city, after the city expropriated the property for intersection improvements. I'm in favour of the road work, but really, is the city actually going to do anything before next spring now? As the London Audio guy says, he's not going to be able to do anything in 90 days, and that will be heading into the Christmas season as well.

[Djeffery]

Dingman Drive is now closed for the next year at the 401 for the bridge replacement.

[Djeffery]

I'm curious now after doing a bit more reading and trying to find any plans for this. There has been work to the east of the current bridge now for a couple months and I thought maybe that was where the new overpass was going. It would make sense because that would then make Dingman pretty much a straight line instead of the right and left curves you have to make approaching and leaving the bridge.

But if that was the case, why the need to close the current bridge while the new one is being built? I could see a shorter term closure after the new bridge was finished and the road needed to be realigned. To the east of town, the highway 74 overpass is being replaced with a new structure immediately beside the old and the old one is still open (and one of the on ramps to the 401 is still in use). 4 years ago, the Veterans Parkway bridge was demolished and rebuilt in less than 8 months, and that included new ramps. I don't get why Dingman is going to take 12 months, other than it's likely after the bridge is removed, a bit more sitework will take place and then the site will shut down for several months over winter.

[jammer139]

Really not sure why the Dundas St rebuild appears to be stalled out. No visible progress in weeks and no workers on site. Same thing for the block of King between Richmond and Clarence.