Highways in Canada

[sonysnob]

Contract to rehabilitate (and presumably widen) the eastbound collector lanes of the 401 from Allen Road to Avenue Road has been called.

http://www.raqs.merx.com/public/bulletin/contractView.jsf?id=20527352

This should add a fourth eastbound collector lane through this section of highway, and alleviate some congestion caused from the Allen/Yorkdale interchange.

[eternallyme]

To build all the highways that are desired in Ontario, it sounds like it would cost about $50-75 billion (considering land costs in urban areas and construction costs in northern Ontario)...yet I am sure that it would get more support in rural and small town Ontario especially than the transit plan (same cost just in the GTA with zero benefit in rural areas).

[vid]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

I should really brush up on my french.. sort of regret not taking it past 9th grade haha.

I tried to take French past grade 9 and they didn't let me.

Originally Posted by eternallyme

To build all the highways that are desired in Ontario, it sounds like it would cost about $50-75 billion (considering land costs in urban areas and construction costs in northern Ontario)...yet I am sure that it would get more support in rural and small town Ontario especially than the transit plan (same cost just in the GTA with zero benefit in rural areas).

Coming from the city that build's all of Toronto's rail cars, I would rather see public transit investment in our capital city than highway construction in Northeastern Ontario and the Muskokas, which is largely what the government means when it says "the north".

[le calmar]

Highway 410 extension in Sherbrooke as of yesterday


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[SignalHillHiker]

Jeddy1989 and I went out for a drive this evening and found ourselves in Mount Pearl. On our way back to the city, we took Pitts Memorial Drive. Here are a few photos of the drive.

The route we took:



And the photos, in chronological order:

Starting with Mount Pearl to our left, Southlands to our right, and the farmland of the Goulds (part of St. John's) straight ahead:



Heading back into St. John's (specifically, the Kilbride neighbourhood):



Near the Columbus Drive exit, which leads into the core of suburban St. John's (not including separate, suburban municipalities):



Signal Hill finally peeks through the trees:



There she is, b'ys. Downtown St. John's. Approaching from what we call the West (it's actually closer to south), facing what we call east (it's actually closer to north):



Woohoo:



Finally, home:

[sonysnob]

^ Thanks for the photos, I haven't seen much of NL's roads online. Ontario used to use the same style of truss lighting on its expressways.

[SignalHillHiker]

Those lights are probably from the same era as Ontario's. These days, we just use... well, no lighting. lol

[FrAnKs]

Pretty awesome! It's very nice to see what the road looks like there!

[SignalHillHiker]

A few more from different parts of the island - to give you a more rounded idea.

The highway immediately outside Channel-Port-aux-Basques, the main ferry terminal on Newfoundland's southwest coast. This is typical of the Trans Canada Highway in Newfoundland - two lanes, but three lanes uphill (so the side travelling up has a passing lane.


Highway 1, Table Mountain, Nearby Port-aux-Basques, Terre-Neuve by [email protected], on Flickr

The highway between Marble Mountain Resort and the city of Corner Brook, on Newfoundland's West Coast. Four-lane, divided highways are the norm for about 15-20 minutes outside of any major community.


Humber Valley by Dru Kennedy, on Flickr

On secondary highways (of which there are LOTS because the Trans Canada Highway crosses the interior of the island, with dozens of secondary highways branching off it to communities along the coast) tend to be two lanes, no shoulder, and slightly pink in hue due to the local rocks used in construction.


West Coast Highway by norman.white39, on Flickr

[vid]

Four-lane, divided highways are the norm for about 15-20 minutes outside of any major community.

Lucky! NWO's main highways look more like that secondary highway photo. You can tell you're in Manitoba because not only is the highway divided, the trees aren't leaning into it anymore, either. Some parts of the highway here are like driving through a tree tunnel.

[SignalHillHiker]

I love tree tunnel highways! It's like that in a lot of New Zealand.

In Newfoundland, we can't. The number of fatalities caused by striking moose greatly decreased when they cleared the trees back from the highways. So they're keeping that up.

[vid]

Ontario's government doesn't care if a few northern hicks die from hitting moose or deer.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by vid

Lucky! NWO's main highways look more like that secondary highway photo. You can tell you're in Manitoba because not only is the highway divided, the trees aren't leaning into it anymore, either. Some parts of the highway here are like driving through a tree tunnel.

They are not. Highway 17 is a fine road both east and west of Thunder Bay. Not only that, several hundred million dollars are currently being spent to widen sections between Thunder Bay and Nipigon to four lanes.

Highway 61 is also a very good road south of Thunder Bay.

Highway 11 to the west of Shabaqua isn't as good as Highway 17, but a lot of it only carries a few hundred vehicles a day.

[vid]

Yes, narrowly re-electing the Liberals has been the best thing to ever happen to our highways.

[waterloowarrior]

Ontario proposing to convert HOV lanes to HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/05/02/hot_lanes_are_training_pants_for_drivers.html

any other HOT lanes in Canada?

[Innsertnamehere]

the highway 400 extension is also a huge thing for northern ontario, but thats been happening for several years now.

[vid]

Highway 400 doesn't go very far into Northern Ontario. It's more of a thing for North Bay.

[Innsertnamehere]

you mean sudbury? (and isn't sudbury part of northern ontario?) 11 goes to north bay, 400/69 to sudbury.

[sonysnob]

On a per capita basis, over the past decade more money has been spent on highways in northern Ontario than in the south.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

On a per capita basis, over the past decade more money has been spent on highways in northern Ontario than in the south.

That's a pretty meaningless statement. Given the fact that 90% of Ontario's land area is in the north, and only about 7% of the population is in the north, all you would have to do is fill a few potholes on Highway 17 and this would create conditions where "highway expenditures in the north are higher on a per capita basis than in the south".

I remain a strong proponent of a meaningful national highway system, including a four lane restricted access and divided highway system from coast to coast.....