London Roads

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Also the 401/Wonderland interchange is planned to open this fall, but based on what I saw a week ago, there's still a lot of work to do.

I drove by this past Friday and the north side of the road basically looks like it is ready for paving, but I agree the south side looks like a ways off. I would be shocked to see this finished in the next month or so.

Does anyone know if they are making the 401 3 lanes from Wonderland east to 402 as well at the same time??

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by MrSlippery519

Does anyone know if they are making the 401 3 lanes from Wonderland east to 402 as well at the same time??

It was in the original plan, but it's been deferred for other projects in the region.

With the Westminster Drive overpass replaced and Wonderland work almost done, the last hurdle is the Highway 4 cloverleaf and Glanworth overpass. Highway 4's bridge will be replaced as part of the interchange reconfiguration project, and Glanworth Drive will either be demolished or replaced (likely demoed).

Then 401 will be widened west from 402 to 4.

[K85]

They are paving the lanes now on the 401 interchange, and the ramps are being pressed via non-rollers atm. CATs are still shaping the hills, no new lighting yet either. Taking it daily, so if anything changes, I'll pass it along

[K85]

Bridge is paved, off ramp going North is done, South is started, Wonderland still unpaved

[K85]

Painted the highway portion of it with lines. Not sure how far they got today (crossed it at about 11am)

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by K85

Painted the highway portion of it with lines. Not sure how far they got today (crossed it at about 11am)

Thanks for the updates, I have not been by in a few weeks so it is nice to hear they are really progressing now.

[K85]

Side is open. One lane, both directions, on the far outside. Inside lanes from both ways are currently being prepped.

[haljackey]

Thanks for the updates!

There haven't been any updates from the media / government, and the last post from the contractor on Facebook was from June 2014: https://www.facebook.com/Hwy-401-Won...6103/timeline/

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Elsewhere in the city, the Highbury CN overpass is almost done, which has been a pain point in my commute.

Traffic on Commissioners Road has been shifted to the new lanes so the old ones can be rebuilt. Should be complete with the initial asphalt layer to Andover by the time the snow falls.

[K85]

That overpass has been the worst thing I have ever had to drive through... It is the single most frustrating portion of road work ever... I had to drive it for work, and moved a few months ago. I now completely avoid it, and stress level has actually decreased in my home life... It's unreal how bad that road fucked me

[MolsonExport]

I can't fucking stand the double-laned roundabouts. Recipies for accidents and assholism in regards to fellow drivers and pedestrians, respectively.

Not a day goes by where I don't give the stink-eye to 20+ drivers for being egregious assholes.

[haljackey]

It's not the design that's the problem, its the drivers.

Waterloo Region made a pretty terribly great video about how to drive on a roundabout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Svgp6xgto

Hopefully with time people will become more accustomed to driving them.

[MolsonExport]

They do not work with snow and ice.

[HillStreetBlues]

I used to carpool with an older guy in Waterloo Region who was both a pretty poor driver (grew up in China and didn't learn to drive until well into adulthood) and had seen too many regional videos on roundabouts when they put one in the suburban hellscape he lived in. No matter how much room there was, he insisted that I should be yielding to the car to the left, whether it was near or far, signalling its intention to leave the roundabout or otherwise (yes, he was an actual passenger-seat driver, ugh).

Anyway, I only narrowly avoided losing it when I once came to a stop and he frantically pointed out that there were no cars coming. He hadn't been bothering- ever- to look for people wanting to cross, and believed I was wrong that we had to come to a stop for someone who was waiting to cross, and not yet crossing.

I hate them anywhere where someone might want to walk at some point. That video made me laugh a few times- I love hearing the claim that moving cars faster reduces emissions. And I can just envision standing there like a nincompoop until the end pointing while vehicle after vehicle fails to give you your right of way. Much better tactic is to avoid eye contact with drivers so that they believe you may not have seen them and they'd better stop, and to have your other finger ready for when they don't.

[MrSlippery519]

Originally Posted by haljackey

It's not the design that's the problem, its the drivers.

Waterloo Region made a pretty terribly great video about how to drive on a roundabout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Svgp6xgto

Hopefully with time people will become more accustomed to driving them.

I completely agree, as people become more educated they will realize roundabouts are great in certain area's. It of course needs to make sense as a roundabout would not automatically be better in every case.

[haljackey]

Hyde Park Road widening finishing up

http://www.lfpress.com/2015/10/25/th...is-almost-over

[MolsonExport]

^not from my vantage point. The construction seems endless (I live very close to Hyde Park Rd)

It has been ripped up, dug out, paved over and repeated several times during the past decade.

This is what I don't get. The fucking road has been under reconstruction 75% of the time since I moved to London. I am not exaggerating.

At the very end of the article:

11: Years ago that construction started

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

^not from my vantage point. The construction seems endless (I live very close to Hyde Park Rd)



This is what I don't get. The fucking road has been under reconstruction 75% of the time since I moved to London. I am not exaggerating.

At the very end of the article:

And it's actually more than the 11 years suggested in the article. Hyde Park Road was extensively reconstructed in 1995 between Sarnia Road and north of Gainsborough Road. I remember the same story back then: upset businesses, traffic snarls. That project included straightening out a sharp curve that used to be in the road right at the Gainsborough intersection, and I believe there were new sewer lines put in to service Hyde Park, which had just been annexed from Middlesex County two years earlier.

Go back another decade, and circa 1984-85 the two railway crossings were replaced - I'm told the CP subway north of Sarnia Road used to be very narrow (possibly one lane), and the CN overhead just south of Sarnia Road was a truss bridge. I can imagine those were brutal years around there too. Of course back then there would have been far less traffic than there was even in the early 90s, as Masonville Place was just being built and there was far less residential development in Northwest London.

As far as I'm concerned, Hyde Park has been under construction on and off for the past 20 years.

[K85]

Maybe someone here may know... What in the shit are they doing on the 401, between London and Dutton? They are cutting a foot long, by two lane wide strip randomly the entire way, then paving it... Is it a speed sensor, traffic monitor??

[K85]

Holy shitballs!!! The overpass is almost done!!! Lights were on this morning on the ramps, and they're quickly shifting traffic between either lane as they clean up the lanes. Paint is done as well

[MolsonExport]

hyde park rd was briefly totally open from Oxfart to Sarnia Road, but then they decided to put the pylons back for no apparent good reason. I hate those pylons. every stinking day for centuries.

did I mention that I hate those pylons? I really hate them.