[Student99]

The lack of a ring road freeway really has hurt London. Its about 50km from Hwy. 402 (near or SE of Strathroy) to Hwy. 401 (near Veterans Memorial). VHM could have been about 25% of this distance if it were done back in the day.

Lack of a ring road freeway has hurt many major Southern Ontario cities. Many of Toronto's traffic woes could be solved with one. I discovered recently that most major U.S. cities have ring road freeways and I had NO PROBLEM driving through (around) these cities during rush hour.

 

[nfitz]

I had this link for the London ring road, but it appears dead. I do not even recall what exactly it described. Maybe someday in the distant future, Highway 7 will be extended to meet this ring road.

http://www.london.ca/Transportation/PDFs/LondonExecSumApril5.pdf

Archive.org is your friend.

Try this:

https://web.archive.org/web/2011062...a/Transportation/PDFs/LondonExecSumApril5.pdf - 2001 draft Executive Summary

This is probably the most useful bit:

 

[muller877]

Now you have London at the crossroads of 2 freeways neither of which are much good to commuters and increasingly in fast growing Northern London, people are taking the old HWY#8/7 thru Stratford to KW and then got on the 401 as it would take too long to get to the 401.

With traffic I would recommend going via Innerkip or Old Hwy 97 (vs Hwy 7). It's always has been a bit quicker than continuing on the 401 for the past 20+ years.

Without traffic the 403 is faster. North London isn't too hard to get out of. You go west and then down Highbury or VMP (depending on timing).

 

[TOareaFan]

anyone aware of a completion date for the 410 widening? It is looking more and more finished every day and less and less stretches of the temporary orange lines and more of the good old fashioned permanent white lines!

"Ticket to ride, white line highway
Tell all your friends, that they can go my way"

 

[innsertnamehere]

It isn't supposed to be done until 2018, but I believe it is supposed to be early 2018. They may be ahead of schedule as well.

 

[drum118]

Had to take a Canon camera in for service on Monday and used the 401 to Mississauga Rd, bypassing the new extension going westbound. The bridge for 2nd line is a month or 2 away from having beams being place on the support piers with most the work to be done on the ones in the centre of the new lanes.

Concrete base was being pour between Mavis off ramp and where the lanes stop today. No work between the off and on ramps and that can't happen until the new ones are built.

They are building a bridge west of Mavis that I wasn't aware of and it a mess area. Until that is done, can't build the on ramps.

Some new concrete lanes are completed up to the Credit River.

Heading that way this weekend and will try to get a video of the site. Will also see what is new from there to hwy 8.

 

[Dan416]

anyone aware of a completion date for the 410 widening? It is looking more and more finished every day and less and less stretches of the temporary orange lines and more of the good old fashioned permanent white lines!

"Ticket to ride, white line highway
Tell all your friends, that they can go my way"

It isn't supposed to be done until 2018, but I believe it is supposed to be early 2018. They may be ahead of schedule as well.

Actually, according to my410.ca, it's not scheduled to be complete for another year (Fall 2018)

The Ministry of Transportation is undertaking the reconstruction of Highway 410 from Eglinton Ave on the 403 to north of Queen Street on Highway 410. The project has scheduled construction duration of 5 years beginning in the fall of 2014 and completing in the fall of 2018.

Although I drive the northbound portion on a daily basis and it does look near completion to me as well, so I definitely hear what you're saying.

However the two new ramps at 401/403/410 interchange (401 E to 403 W and 403 E to 401 W) were supposed to be done this year and I've seen little progress on that front from my vantage point (from 401 E to 410 N).

 

[44 North]

The province, at one time, planned for major growth in Southwestern Ontario, especially on the Highway 3 corridor. Townsend, outside of Jarvis, was supposed to be a sizeable "new town" community, but never went too far. The Nanticoke industrial area was supposed to be huge. Haldimand-Norfolk was organized as a Regional Municipality in advance of this projected growth, but never really happened.

This helps to explain the Highway 3 Super-2 in St. Thomas, designed for twinning. I suspect there were plans for Highway 402 to connect with that at one time.

Ok cool. I remember someone else mentioning this planned Nanticoke subdivision awhile back. Thanks for providing more detail. Seems a bit silly to build a town from scratch when they could've expanded on one of the existing nearby towns. Still though there's something alluring about planning a new town from the ground up. For anyone else interested the Spacing article is a great read

Small wonder, so is the project.

I was born and raised in Greater London and the Ring Road has been talked about since the 1970s and it will NEVER happen. Just as politics always gets in the way of Toronto transit, the same is true for London roads.

The 401 was suppose to be an effective commuter route for fast growing London the 1960s and was suppose to run about 2km north of where it is now and run north of Ingersol but St.Thomas protested so it had to be between the 2 which is why the 401/Wellington interchange is almost exactly the same distance from downtown London as it is from downtown St.Thomas. Then the 402 was suppose to go North of the city to solve the problem of northern London being so far away from the 401. Again politics got in the way and it would have run too close to Labatts home and the politically powerful North London area. It was suppose to basically run parallel to HWY#22 past Strathroy and meetup at the 403 at Woodstock.

Now you have London at the crossroads of 2 freeways neither of which are much good to commuters and increasingly in fast growing Northern London, people are taking the old HWY#8/7 thru Stratford to KW and then got on the 401 as it would take too long to get to the 401.

Seems like it's twice the distance between dt St Thomas and dt London. But otherwise thanks for the explanation.

 

[darth_freeman]

Highway 410: while an additional lane per direction should be opened by the end of this construction season, there are still a number of things remaining for 2018:

• Finish rehab of 403 over Matheston bridge (south of 401)
• Finish road work on 403/410 (south of 401)
• Construct separator in 410 NB lanes from 401 to Courtney Park
• Additional 401/403 ramps
• Finish bridge rehabs between Steeles & Clark
• Final surface paving & final signing for HOV

Only after all this can they paint and open the new HOV lanes from south of 401 to Queen!

 

[Dan416]

Highway 410: while an additional lane per direction should be opened by the end of this construction season, there are still a number of things remaining for 2018:

• Finish rehab of 403 over Matheston bridge (south of 401)
• Finish road work on 403/410 (south of 401)
• Construct separator in 410 NB lanes from 401 to Courtney Park
• Additional 401/403 ramps
• Finish bridge rehabs between Steeles & Clark
• Final surface paving & final signing for HOV

Only after all this can they paint and open the new HOV lanes from south of 401 to Queen!

So the new ramps got pushed to 2018? They were scheduled for this year.

 

[darth_freeman]

So the new ramps got pushed to 2018? They were scheduled for this year.

Were they? With less than two months of construction time left this year it looks like a lot would still have to be done to get them up and running. But I suppose it's possible.

 

[Juan_Lennon416]

Are there any plans in the near future to convert Highway 2A in Scarborough from a 4 lane mini expressway to a local road? I think there was a plan to do something with this roadway several years ago.

 

[Voltz]

Are there any plans in the near future to convert Highway 2A in Scarborough from a 4 lane mini expressway to a local road? I think there was a plan to do something with this roadway several years ago.

I've seen proposals to take down the Lawson Road bridge, and instead have a regular intersection nearby, and allow for east bound left turns from 2A onto Meadowvale Road, as part of plans for changes to the Highland Creek Village.

 

[adma]

I've seen proposals to take down the Lawson Road bridge, and instead have a regular intersection nearby, and allow for east bound left turns from 2A onto Meadowvale Road, as part of plans for changes to the Highland Creek Village.

Roundabout, maybe?

 

[Student99]

Highway 410: while an additional lane per direction should be opened by the end of this construction season, there are still a number of things remaining for 2018:

• Finish rehab of 403 over Matheston bridge (south of 401)
• Finish road work on 403/410 (south of 401)
• Construct separator in 410 NB lanes from 401 to Courtney Park
• Additional 401/403 ramps
• Finish bridge rehabs between Steeles & Clark
• Final surface paving & final signing for HOV

Only after all this can they paint and open the new HOV lanes from south of 401 to Queen!

I'm a little bit ignorant about all of this work, but are they working on any sort of expansion for capacity from 410 SB to 403? It ridiculously cuts down to one lane after the Cawthra Road exit and bottlenecks like CRAZY!

I never understood why everything is so complicated here at the 401/403/410 interchange. Why doesn't it work like the 427/401 interchange, where both highways keep going on through with a ramping pattern more or less like a typical interchange. Why isn't the 410 simply an extension of the 403.