The 401

[Innsertnamehere]

The 401 E/C is planned to go to Salem road in Ajax, a 10 lane widening to Courtice road, and 8 lanes to highway 35. You won't really be able to widen it beyond that without major issues through central Oshawa sort of like how the QEW through Mississauga is today.

I'm amazed MTO didn't slap a 400 series designation on the highway 7 twinning a few years ago outside of Ottawa. 115 isn't technically up to 400 series standards, but it would be fairly easy to upgrade and is close enough that it could grab a 400 series designation as well IMO. 35 needs to be upgraded ASAP. I am also interested to see what they will be naming the highway 7 twinning between Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo.

Also, if you think the 416 is empty wait until the 400 goes to Sudbury. The mid section of that will be really empty, the emptiest part of the 416 gets roughly twice the traffic.

[haljackey]

...And I thought traffic would be light on Easter Sunday.

Busiest Stretch Of Highway In the World: Highway 401 At Weston Road in Toronto by haljackey, on Flickr

Full size: https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5284/...c22194fa_o.jpg

[haljackey]

Drove though Toronto on Easter. Made a video of the 401 because I can.

• Video Link

[MolsonExport]

^really cool video. The mother of all highways.

[swimmer_spe]

Some thoughts:

1) The 401 needs to be 6 lanes for it's entire length.

2) widen to 8+lanes in major urban centres - Windsor, London, Kitchener, and Kingston

3) the widest highway in North America, and possibly the world is the 401, located near the highway where there is 9 lanes per side!

4) EDR are for those that do not know the area. Turning off one, and down a back road may be faster, if you know where you are.

[Innsertnamehere]

Ontario's concession system makes it generally easy to navigate back roads provided they aren't terribly disconnected.

8 lanes through Kitchener and maybe London is needed, but not really anywhere else. There isn't much additional urban traffic on the highway in Kingston and Windsor that requires it to be 4 lanes. 3 lanes from the 416 to Detroit would be nice though.

[haljackey]

In London, long-term plans will see the 401 8-laned from Highway 4 to Highway 402, 10 lanes from the 402 to Highbury Ave or the Veterans Memorial Parkway, and 8 lanes to the 403 in Woodstock. In Kitchener, the 401 will be 8 lanes +2HOV lanes starting at Highway 8.. The first leg of that project between Highway 8 and 24 starts next year I think.

Work on the long-delayed Wonderland Road interchange in London has finally begun this month. Next year the whole highway through London will be a mess, as the Highway 4 and Westminster Drive overpasses are slated to be replaced to prep for 6-laning (and eventual 8-laning) to Highway 4. The Veterans Memorial Parkway interchange is to be converted to a Parclo A-4 to extend it south (not sure why as it gets rid of the perfectly fine free-flowing trumpet there right now and the extension isn't really that needed).

The Highbury Avenue overpass will also be replaced to allow for a wider and needed bridge deck and will have more room below to have the 401 widened. I am not sure if this is part of the same construction project as the other bridge replacements.

After these are done, the last long-term project in Southwest Ontario is to 6-lane the 401 between Tilbury and Highway 4. That probably won't wrap up until the late 2020's, it could possibly go into the 2030's.

[Innsertnamehere]

any plans to replace the highway 4 cloverleaf? is that included in the overpass reconstruction?

[haljackey]

Yep that's part of the plan.

According to the MTO Southern Highways program:

Location:
Colonel Talbot Rd. to Veterans Memorial Pkwy, including Wonderland Rd., Westminster Dr., Highbury Ave., London

Type of work:
New interchanges / interchange improvements / bridge rehabilitation

It basically covers every overpass in London except Wellington Road, which was rebuilt in 2009. No mention of road widening, but I do know 6 lanes are planned to go in between Highway 4 and 402. The Westminster Drive overpass is likely the narrowest structure on the 401, spanning only 4 lanes. Replacing it green-lights widening.

Targeted completion date is 'beyond 2017', but work on Wonderland Road started this month. I'd assume work on the other projects will begin next year, with the overpasses being rebuilt one at a time.

The Wonderland Road interchange has been delayed for so long because the MTO couldn't come to a consensus about how it should be built. The first designs were a typical parclo-A4 interchange, with the overpass spanning a 6 lane 401. Then it was redesigned to support a 8 lane 401 (which I think is overkill past the 402 interchange). The final design actually sees it as an underpass with a parclo A-2 design and I am unsure if it will be long enough to support 8 lanes (I'd assume it would be).
-The City of London wants to 6-lane Wonderland Road south to the 402 interchange, and have 4 lanes continue to the 401 junction. It is just a 2-lane country road right now and the 402 overpass cannot accommodate any widening.

-----

As for Highway 4, I dug up an old post from the London subforum showing the Highway 4 reconstruction. I am not sure how up-to-date this is, however.

Originally Posted by haljackey

Here is what is planned. The reconstruction will probably include widening the 401 to six lanes and adding a new interchange with Wonderland road to the east.






A GIF of the reconstruction. I'm not sure why this GIF doesn't include one of the loop ramps of the existing cloverleaf.

Read more: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=184740

[vid]

It's 2014, why are we looking at scanned photocopies of printed plans in GIF format???

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by vid

It's 2014, why are we looking at scanned photocopies of printed plans in GIF format???

Not that it's a big difference but that was from a post quoted form 2010.

Still, it's really the most relevant information I can find regarding a project that is starting in the next year or two.

-----

So to summarize, London area 401 projects.

-Revised Highway 4 interchange (including new overpasses for Highway 4 and Tempo Road)
-New Wonderland Road interchange
-New Westminister Drive overpass
-New Highbury Avenue overpass
-Expanded Veteran's Memorial Parkway interchange

Work started this month, to be complete 'beyond 2017'.

[haljackey]

Bye Bye Westminster Drive overpass

Once this thing is gone, the only thing standing in the way of widening the 401 to 6 lanes through London is the Highway 4 cloverleaf.

http://www.am980.ca/2014/07/04/demol...-this-weekend/

[Innsertnamehere]

The highway 4 cloverleaf is the last cloverleaf in the province right?

[sonysnob]

There is also a cloverleaf at Hwy 401/62 in Belleville.

(And the one at DVP/Lawrence).

[Innsertnamehere]

wow, for some reason I never knew about the one at lawrence, I've driven that stretch more times than I can count. for some reason I thought it had been "unclovered" on the cheap like Eglinton had. (closure of some ramps and conversion of some others to make it a parlco)

are there any plans to remove the one in belleville given that the highway it connects to is being widened soon?

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

wow, for some reason I never knew about the one at lawrence, I've driven that stretch more times than I can count. for some reason I thought it had been "unclovered" on the cheap like Eglinton had. (closure of some ramps and conversion of some others to make it a parlco)

are there any plans to remove the one in belleville given that the highway it connects to is being widened soon?

The clover at Lawrence will probably remain indefinitely just because of how elongated the ramps are in favour of the Parkway.

There is some rehabilitative work scheduled for the Hwy 62/401 grade separation. I don't know the specifics of what is proposed in the contract, but it could include some ramp realignments. The Hwy 62 cloverleaf is very tight, and both 62 and the 401 are quite busy through the interchange. The trouble with the Hwy 62 cloverleaf is the proximity of traffic signals on both sides of the interchange. Cloverleaf Drive in particular is practically right at the northern ramp terminals of the interchange. Hwy 62 already has a four lane cross-section right the way through to Cloverleaf Drive, so it is doubtful that the ongoing widening project would have any bearing at that location.

[eemy]

Originally Posted by haljackey

In London, long-term plans will see the 401 8-laned from Highway 4 to Highway 402, 10 lanes from the 402 to Highbury Ave or the Veterans Memorial Parkway, and 8 lanes to the 403 in Woodstock. In Kitchener, the 401 will be 8 lanes +2HOV lanes starting at Highway 8.. The first leg of that project between Highway 8 and 24 starts next year I think.

They have technically started work on the widening in Waterloo Region with the demolition of the Speedsville Rd overpass and the start of construction of a wider replacement.

[1overcosc]

I imagine MTO would scrap (or defer long-term) any widening plans between Kitchener & Toronto given the plans for two-way all-day GO and HSR service to Kitchener.

[Innsertnamehere]

Yes, the 401 expansion much past Milton is probably off the shelf for now, provided that the HSR actually gets built.

That said, MTO already has funding to bring the express collectors system to Milton.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I imagine MTO would scrap (or defer long-term) any widening plans between Kitchener & Toronto given the plans for two-way all-day GO and HSR service to Kitchener.

I doubt the implementation of HSR will really have that much of an effect on traffic levels on the 401.