Johnny Au
Senior Member
Cities across the United States are removing their old underused freeways:
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- Thread starter Haljackey
- Start date
Haljackey
Active Member
Would you consider any urban freeways to be underused in Ontario? The only one I can think of is Highway 3's freeway section in St. Thomas, and the right of way reserved for it has just been opened up to development.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
14. Overview of the Recommended Plan - HIGHWAY 403 AND HIGHWAY 6 INTERCHANGE IMPROVEMENTS
The Recommended Plan for improvements to the Highway 6 and Highway 403 corridors includes: Rehabilitation and extension of Grindstone Creek culvert Rehabilitation of Hidden Valley Road culvert Structure replacement on existing alignment of Lemonville Road, with full closure during construction...
hwy403hwy6preliminarydesignea.ca
Preferred design for the 403 widening through Aldershot and into Hamilton.
Fixes the left turn merge issues at Highway 6, widens Highway 6 to, well, 6 lanes, and widens the 403 to 8 lanes. Not anything too crazy, though the Highway 6 interchange reconfiguration will be pricey, even if very necessary.
Interestingly it shows the Lemonville Rd overpass getting replaced, which is odd as it appears wide enough to accommodate the widening and seems to be in good condition. Wonder what the thought there is.
Hallelujah! That 403-6 interchange is a death trap, particularly going from 6 SB to 403 EB. Merging into the left lane with such a short taper is a nightmare during peak periods. I drive that route every day (or at least I did before COVID), and the rightmost lane heading EB on the 403 from Main to just before Waterdown Rd is actually the fastest lane, since it avoids everyone trying to get left to reach 6 NB, and avoids everyone coming off 6 SB.
I just wish they would extend the HOV lanes through to Hwy 6 though. The 403-407-QEW junction backs up big time, so if there was some way to carry the HOV lanes west from Guelph Line that would be awesome.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
The HOV lanes are expected to be routed towards the Burlington Skyway on the QEW, not on the 403. MTO completed the EA to extend them to North Shore Boulevard right before the Skyway a year or so ago. That project would also widen the 403 across the interchange with an third through-lane and 8 lanes past the interchange to Waterdown Road.
The website is down now, but this is the internet archive link to it:
The website is down now, but this is the internet archive link to it:
lenaitch
Senior Member
It's a bit of a misconception that a given fee pays for given program. It's bit of a shell game that governments would have us believe that, for example, fishing licence fees go to support fish stocks. They might, indirectly, if the government so budgets, but there is no straight line. With very, very few exceptions, all government income goes into general revenue which they dole out as they see fit.
Service Ontario offices are privately operated, but Service Ontario, as an entity, handles all sorts of public-facing services, including health cards, birth/death registration, etc.
nfitz
Superstar
412, 418, EC Row Expressway ...
Haljackey
Active Member
I wouldn't say that 412 and 418 are urban freeways- they are pretty suburban or even rural in nature. They'll get used more once the tolls are taken out too.
The E.C. Row isn't dead. It's a good way to get across town and all my friends from Windsor love to rub it's usefulness in my face since London has no equivalent. (K-W friends rub both the lack of LRT and freeways in my face lol)
It's importance will grow once the Gordie Howe Bridge is finished and also as Windsor itself grows- it is an attractive place currently due to it's housing costs.
Ideally I'd like to see the E.C. Row get extended further east and meet up with the 401. That would provide a faster route to the tunnel to USA but seems like a little overkill with a 6 lane 401 running nearby.
ericmacm
Active Member
I can confirm that E.C. Row is both not dead and incredibly useful, as someone who lived in Windsor for 5 years. There is also slow movement again on eastward expansion again, with an interchange at Banwell Road taking precedence right now. Manning Road and Patillo Road interchanges are also likely in the foreseeable future as the eastern suburbs grow.
tstormers
Senior Member
I can also say, as a former Windsorite, the highway can get to feel like the 401 some days in the center sections. There were plans to expand the lanes, similar to what was done in KW, but only 6 lanes total to connect to the new bridge. Also, I remember seeing options to expand Lauzon Parkway up (down) to the 401 and create another interchange with maybe a limit on Trucks.
nfitz
Superstar
The question was whether the expressway was underutilized, not useful, or used. The piece of E.C. Row west of the Huron Church Road is underused though - and won't improve because for some reason the 401 extension was built alongside it, rather than replacing it!
Yeah, if you want to differentiate between urban and suburban, then 412/418 don't count - doesn't leave too many expressways though.
That's good that the HOV lanes will continue along the QEW, but I really wish the MTO wasn't so shy about building dedicated HOV lane exits and overpasses. There's definitely an opportunity to build a high-level HOV-only overpass of the Freeman interchange, and have the HOV lanes land between the 407 ramps and King Rd.
Megaton327
Senior Member
Agreed. If I'm not mistaken, the only place in Ontario where an HOV lane has a separate ramp that gives drivers two options on where to go, rather than just following the road it's on, is the southbound 404 HOV ramp which has exits to the southbound DVP and the westbound 401. That westbound 401 ramp is a godsend, at most times of day it'll save you at least 10 minutes, at rush hour easily 30. For heading to midtown, I usually take that ramp and take bayview down rather than going down the DVP (even if there's not too much traffic on Eglinton). I wish there were more of these (especially eastbound 401 at the same interchange).
innsertnamehere
Superstar
They are very expensive to build so MTO tends to avoid them. The 401 one made sense as it’s such a high congestion spot, the 403 in Burlington isn’t nearly as congested.
As someone who lives not even 5 minutes from that interchange, I can tell you that during the PM peak it's a huge choke point. There are effectively only 2 through lanes on the 403 from the split westward. The leftmost lane comes right off the 407, and it's pretty much empty. The traffic from Brant St and the Toronto-bound QEW have their own lane, but that ends a few hundred metres west of the 407.