[just east of the creek]

I drove past this site as well. As Tim noted, there are a lot of bales of straw, now seemingly all under tarps. So I am not sure if MTO is opening a feed lot operation or not...maybe not?

However, as complete to a lane shifting mode as the western side of the bridge and the bridge appear to be, the eastern side appears to be settling in for some period of work. They have moved offices, surveillance and lighting equipment into this area and tarped what looks to be a couple of trailer loads of straw bales. However, they appear to have completed all the noise abatement walls that were still incomplete a couple of weeks ago, so perhaps this is all directed at work underneath the bridge, pedestrian walkways etc. Regardless, it does not now appear as if they will be switching any east bound traffic flow to the rebuilt bridge at any time in the near future.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

I had hoped to shoot this yesterday afternoon since i had the car and was literally heading out the door when a work emergency scuttled those plans. It is high on the list for another flyover.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

Some photos from Saturday, December 7th. The winds were picking up so I didn't fly the far western portion of the project.

 

[drum118]

Dec 15
On my way home, decided to checkout the new walkway bridge since it been a long time I been down there. I also got a look at the southside as well that stills needs a lot of work. Was going to get some shoots from the QEW, but rain was falling when I when to do it.

The cycling/pedestrian walkway from Hurontario St is in place, but it needs some repaving

Some Unedited/un-tag with everything on line in January

 

[nfitz]

I drove along this stretch of the QEW for the first time in a long while tonight (with the construction traffic jams, it's always been faster for me to take 401/427 until today). With all the talk here about the bridge projects at Dixie and the Credit, I was expecting to see widening construction from the Credit to at least east of Dixie. But nothing, except near the Credit and at Dixie.

I'm puzzled what the full plan is here - this looks like it could ultimately carry 12 lanes of traffic; perhaps 10 if they over-engineer the lane widths and shoulders.

I assume there's some discussion further up that I missed?

 

[innsertnamehere]

I drove along this stretch of the QEW for the first time in a long while tonight (with the construction traffic jams, it's always been faster for me to take 401/427 until today). With all the talk here about the bridge projects at Dixie and the Credit, I was expecting to see widening construction from the Credit to at least east of Dixie. But nothing, except near the Credit and at Dixie.

I'm puzzled what the full plan is here - this looks like it could ultimately carry 12 lanes of traffic; perhaps 10 if they over-engineer the lane widths and shoulders.

I assume there's some discussion further up that I missed?

The plan for the bridge is 3+1HOV in each direction ultimately, plus some auxiliary lanes. The HOV is not funded yet though and will require quite a bit of expropriation between Hurontario and Cawthra before it can happen.

Upon completion it will be 3 lanes in each direction, with an auxiliary lane and merge lane on the south side between Mississauga Road and Hurontario.

 

[nfitz]

Upon completion it will be 3 lanes in each direction, with an auxiliary lane and merge lane on the south side between Mississauga Road and Hurontario.

I don't see much point opening the 4th lane for a relatively short distance. My guess is that it would remain closed until it can be opened all the way to West Mall.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I don't see much point opening the 4th lane for a relatively short distance. My guess is that it would remain closed until it can be opened all the way to West Mall.

It will operate similar to other auxiliary lanes along the QEW - like between Trafalgar and Dorval and Bronte and Burloak. Basically the Mississauga Road on-ramp continues and becomes the Hurontario off-ramp.

Eventually when the HOVs are added, the auxiliary will remain between Mississauga Road and Hurontario, meaning the eastbound lane will have 6 lanes across the Credit: 1 HOV + 3 General Purpose + 1 Auxiliary + 1 Merge.

MTO is adding it as pre-bridge widening, the Mississauga Rd to Hurontario stretch was always a pinch point which lead to large traffic backups. This will fix that for this stretch.

It's the same thing with MTO extending the 4th GP lane from Dixie to Cawthra on the westbound direction of the QEW - it will add a bit of extra capacity in one spot which has higher demands than the rest of the highway.

AS a whole the QEW should operate a lot better once both projects are done even without a mainline widening as they both add capacity in the two old "pinch spots" along the highway. this is especially true as the construction projects have made traffic on the QEW far worse for the last few years as they have been getting built. It's going to be a massive difference once they wrap up.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

December 28th, 2024

 

[Metroscapes]

For the record, I sent an email to the project team on December 15 to specifically ask about the active transport crossing over the river, but I never got a response. I'll prod them again.

 

[Metroscapes]

For the record, I sent an email to the project team on December 15 to specifically ask about the active transport crossing over the river, but I never got a response. I'll prod them again.

Got a couple lines saying they're continuing to work on it, and it's to be completed by the summer.

I still don't have a good grasp on it, what I've seen suggests it's tucked under there somewhere but I feel like I need one good picture or a first hand look. I've got it on my docket of places to walk in 2025.

 

[Sauga89]

Got a couple lines saying they're continuing to work on it, and it's to be completed by the summer.

I still don't have a good grasp on it, what I've seen suggests it's tucked under there somewhere but I feel like I need one good picture or a first hand look. I've got it on my docket of places to walk in 2025.

Does this graphic help? They are repurposing an old maintenance walkway beneath the bridge, according to the 2021 environmental assessment.

I don't think it's very visible, except perhaps from below.

 

[Sauga89]

October 20
South side of the bridge:

View attachment 607513
View attachment 607516


View attachment 607517

If you look at these photos @Tim MacDonald took in October from the south side, you can see the walkway underneath the arches.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

Does this graphic help? They are repurposing an old maintenance walkway beneath the bridge, according to the 2021 environmental assessment.

View attachment 625262

View attachment 625263
I don't think it's very visible, except perhaps from below.

That's different than the render a couple of pages back which shows it hanging on Northside of the new bridge. I wonder which render is the one that will be built?

 

[Sauga89]

That's different than the render a couple of pages back which shows it hanging on Northside of the new bridge. I wonder which render is the one that will be built?

I think that other rendering is from an earlier plan. Initially, they were going to demolish the original south span after they built the new north span, and then build a new south span. Then in 2019, they decided to rehabilitate the existing bridge to preserve its heritage features. Rehabilitation of the existing bridge also meant they could adapt the existing maintenance walkway as a pedestrian crossing, so there wasn't a need to build a pedestrian crossing on the northside. The current plan is for the multi-use trail to run on the north side of the highway on either side of the river, and then new ramps will carry the path up under the new north span to the maintenance walkway under the south span.

(EDIT: Whenever you photograph the bridge next (excellent photos btw), you could see if they've started to add permanent fencing to the walkway. In your October photos, it looks like it still only had temporary wooden fencing.)