West end access to 401 or 402

[jammer139]

With the numerous developments being planned for west end London (ie: West5, Warbler Woods, Kilworth). When does the City, Middlesex County and the Province revive a west end expressway linking to the 401 or 402? Middlesex county is 10 years away from widening Glendon Dr to 4 lanes thru to 402 and Mt Brydges. Is that going to be the only link in the west end? Do we not need a North-South link to the 402? For example Westdel Bourne or Woodhull?

Let's look into the future 25-75 years from now. Will we not need a major north south transportation route to run the EV vehicles on? Or will everything be autonomous flying drones by then?

[ssiguy]

I don't follow. Why would you need a 401/402 connection when both roads run east/west? Are you talking about a western road from the 401 past the 402 to Fanshawe Park Road and maybe up to Lucan/St.Mary's?

[go_leafs_go02]

I would assume it would be highly likely for an interchange to eventually end up at the 402 and Westdel Bourne some day.

There's a fair distance between Highway 4 and Highway 2 along the 402 for interchanges, so likely something will pop up one day.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

I would assume it would be highly likely for an interchange to eventually end up at the 402 and Westdel Bourne some day.

That is extremely likely...however per usual the city does not plan ahead. Westdel Bourne should have been an 80km road the entire way to Oxford. For some odd reason they are building so close to the road (specifically at Byron Baseline Rd) this is now not an option.

I drive it everyday

[HillStreetBlues]

As much as I think the obvious answer to this and others of London's issues is to (finally) put a check on the sprawl, that seems unlikely and I think Westdel Bourne could have been a good contender for an expressway. Before the River Bend developments were put in, it would have been possible to extend it north to connect with Fanshawe Park Road.

The writing has been on the wall for most of that to fill in, anyway- it is a bit astounding that they didn't prepare for the traffic that development would generate. I can attest that getting from the 401 to River Bend is not how it should be- I know people who live there who have no set routes to the 401/402, and sometimes drive well into London to do it- that's not desirable for anyone.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by HillStreetBlues

As much as I think the obvious answer to this and others of London's issues is to (finally) put a check on the sprawl, that seems unlikely and I think Westdel Bourne could have been a good contender for an expressway. Before the River Bend developments were put in, it would have been possible to extend it north to connect with Fanshawe Park Road.

The writing has been on the wall for most of that to fill in, anyway- it is a bit astounding that they didn't prepare for the traffic that development would generate. I can attest that getting from the 401 to River Bend is not how it should be- I know people who live there who have no set routes to the 401/402, and sometimes drive well into London to do it- that's not desirable for anyone.

I cannot agree more, and as I said I live in Riverbend. It would not have taken a whole lot of extra planning for the city to say "this road is staying a 80km from the river to past Longwood". It was to put it nicely stupid of the city to allow builders to build these massive 700K houses that close to the road...and then complain about road noise and safety.

Getting to the 401 is exactly as you say...sometimes I come through Byron to Col Talbot, sometimes I go Longwood to Westminister Drive then up Col Tablot, etc.

[jammer139]

The county prepares to do an EA.

http://lfpress.com/news/local-news/w...mes-roundabout

This rebuild should be 5 lanes from London to the 402 in order to have an East-West link.

With all the development and new housing this road cannot be allowed to be rebuilt as a 2 lane. Hopefully the plans result in a proper road.

[jammer139]

Glendon Drive EA report

https://www.middlesexcentre.on.ca/Pu...ons_ch1to8.pdf

This project needs to happen sooner rather then later.

[TallerIsBetter]

Agree that this has been woefully planned. This should have been a full freeway from the new Oxford St bridge to 402 with a concurrent build of a Westdel Bourne freeway down to 401 and north up to at least the old highway 22.

Dumb.

[ssiguy]

Of course Glendon should be 4 lanes from the 402 thru Komoka to London but it was never properly planned for because the 402 wasn't built even remotely close to where it was originally designed to go due to political influence. Then again the 401 also isn't close to where it was suppose to built either and again due to political interference.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by TallerIsBetter

Agree that this has been woefully planned. This should have been a full freeway from the new Oxford St bridge to 402 with a concurrent build of a Westdel Bourne freeway down to 401 and north up to at least the old highway 22.

Dumb.

Yet another painfully stupid move by the city, I do not understand why 10+ years ago that was not put into motion. I live in Riverbend currently and have family in Kilworth and Komoka and they have been saying the same thing for well over 10 years.
The city had an opportunity as they have had many times to plan proper roads but they always wait until it is to late and then apply band-aid fixes.

Why Westdel Bourne was ever approved to have massive houses built at baseline and north is a mystery to me (yes I understand a few of those houses are older). With Westdel already connecting to Oxford/Baseline/Southdale/Longwoods and could have then easily connected to the 402 and 401 it was literally a perfect scenario to move traffic North/South on the west side of the city. Westdel should have been a 4 lane expressway, linking many major roads with the foresight to know the city was growing in that direction.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

Why Westdel Bourne was ever approved to have massive houses built at baseline and north is a mystery to me (yes I understand a few of those houses are older). With Westdel already connecting to Oxford/Baseline/Southdale/Longwoods and could have then easily connected to the 402 and 401 it was literally a perfect scenario to move traffic North/South on the west side of the city. Westdel should have been a 4 lane expressway, linking many major roads with the foresight to know the city was growing in that direction.

And connected to Gainsborough to the north, a very short distance away when you look on a map. Hell, do that and how necessary would Wonderland being 6 lanes be then?

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

And connected to Gainsborough to the north, a very short distance away when you look on a map. Hell, do that and how necessary would Wonderland being 6 lanes be then?

Another great point as that will be the next major bottleneck, which lets be honest is already becoming a big issue. Oxford alone cannot handle the volume needed for people trying to get north coming from Kilworth/Riverbend/Byron plus the hundreds of new houses being put up.

Westdel Bourne was literally the perfect road to make all that happen

[tyeman200]

This whole problem begins in the 70s. Had our city just went along with the 402 being built and paid for by the government, instead of the stupid location its at now, we would have a nice expressway in London. Now we pay the price today, and the only way to get something like that, requires a lot of expropriation.

[ssiguy]

Actually the problem started well before the 1970s with the 402 but in the 1950s with the 401.

Originally the 401 was suppose to go NORTH of Lambeth and roughly go across the city roughly between Southdale and Commissioners and then continue further east running NORTH of Dorchester & Ingersol and by Woodstck be roughly where it is now to join upo with HWY#2. Obviously a far more logical and convinient route so what happened? St.Thomas happened. They didn't want the 401 that far from their city so the route was taken much further south and hence is why the 401 is basically dead centre between downtown London and downtown St.Thomas.