[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

If the purpose of connecting the Hope Side Road to West Hunt Club Road is to provide an easterly path across the Rideau River and/or a connection to the 416, I would rather the City used Strandherd Road. It should be fairly easy to extend the Hope Side Road south-east through the old quarry and connect it to the current Fallowfield/Strandherd interchange with the 416. Fallowfield would be chopped and connected with a 'T' intersection to the new Hope Side Road extension. If people really want to get onto Hunt Club, they can get on the 416 at Strandherd and get off at West Hunt Club, one interchange north.

By taking the traffic up Richmond Road, it travels through the heart of the Stoney Swamp. The original convoluted routing of the planned Hope Side Road extension was due to the NCC saying that there would be NO widening of Richmond Road through the swamp. I guess that by limiting the study's scope to only looking at a connection to Hunt Club and presenting an option which is much worse, the City has stunned the NCC into agreeing to allow the widening of Richmond Road. In my opinion, this is a big mistake.

The old quarry does provide an option too, but land stability for what would be a crucial transportation corridor would be a major issue.