Mid Peninsula Highway

[1overcosc]

^ Transportation & infrastructure dollars have been shielded from budget cuts... in fact spending in those areas is going up significantly.

[Innsertnamehere]

regardless large new highways like this either are built for free over a very long period of time (400 to sudbury), or are tolled and built quickly (407 extension)

The planned 413 (GTA West) is already almost presumed that it will be a toll road, and its still at LEAST 15 years from construction.

[realcity]

Build this already. It will take pressure off the tender fruit lands below the escarpment, where the QEW is encouraging sprawl development into the farms. Since there is no enforcement of the Greenbelt.

[Innsertnamehere]

There is plenty of enforcement of the greenbelt. It's just that most of the lands below the mountain are not protected greenbelt lands.

[HillStreetBlues]

Originally Posted by realcity

Build this already. It will take pressure off the tender fruit lands below the escarpment, where the QEW is encouraging sprawl development into the farms. Since there is no enforcement of the Greenbelt.

This is a good point. Really, the QEW should simply not have been built in the first place, ruining some of the best agricultural land in the entire country. What's done is done, but the Mid-Peninsula would mean less development below the escarpment, and less pressure to widen the QEW.

The development in places like Grimsby and Beamsville is extremely poorly-suited to transit growth. There are few jobs there; nearly everyone has to commute into Hamilton or further. Go and other transit is not going to work well enough; the Mid-Peninsula Highway may.

[Innsertnamehere]

QEW shouldn't be built? It's a key economic lifeline to the US from Toronto, it absolutely should have been built.

All the Mid Pen will do is allow for more sprawl in the middle of the peninsula, along with the sprawl already occurring along the QEW. It will make jobs and residents even more spread out and disparate.

In many ways we are lucky with the location of the QEW, the mountain acts as a natural barrier to sprawl.

All that should be done is widen the QEW as required. No mid pen is needed.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by HillStreetBlues

This is a good point. Really, the QEW should simply not have been built in the first place, ruining some of the best agricultural land in the entire country. What's done is done, but the Mid-Peninsula would mean less development below the escarpment, and less pressure to widen the QEW.

The development in places like Grimsby and Beamsville is extremely poorly-suited to transit growth. There are few jobs there; nearly everyone has to commute into Hamilton or further. Go and other transit is not going to work well enough; the Mid-Peninsula Highway may.

I doubt anyone involved in the planning for what became the QEW during the 1930s thought that far ahead about the potential for urban development on the orchard lands. Plus, as well as serving to link Toronto with Niagara it connected the major cities and towns, which were (and still are) largely below the Niagara Escarpment until you get to St. Catharines.

The Mid-Pen route runs through some good agricultural land as well. I think eventually it will be needed, but for now improving the QEW and providing complementary transit probably serves the demand.

[haljackey]

If modern design standards and environmental assessments were used back in the 1950's and 60's when most freeways were built in North America, very few highways would meet the criteria.

The QEW is no exception.

[HillStreetBlues]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

QEW shouldn't be built? It's a key economic lifeline to the US from Toronto, it absolutely should have been built.

All the Mid Pen will do is allow for more sprawl in the middle of the peninsula, along with the sprawl already occurring along the QEW. It will make jobs and residents even more spread out and disparate.

In many ways we are lucky with the location of the QEW, the mountain acts as a natural barrier to sprawl.

All that should be done is widen the QEW as required. No mid pen is needed.

It absolutely is an important economic link with the U.S. It should have been built above the escarpment, though, on relatively (relative to below the mountain, not to most other places) less productive agricultural land.

If the mountain is the only barrier to sprawl along the QEW, that means it will one day have consumed all of this unique farmland...which doesn't seem impossible. It's a shame (but understandable for technical and other reasons) we put the highway along the lakeshore and not on the escarpment. What's done is done, but we should still relieve the pressure on that land somehow.