Windsor-Essex Parkway - Page 29

sa230e · #**561** Posted **May 28, 2015, 9:26 PM**

I shot some footage of the project back in April but debated about putting it up because I didn't get a lot of the vantage points I usually do and the whole thing is kind of half-assed. I thought I'd just wait until it opened and do a really big video but I changed my mind. So here's the April video:

• Video Link

sa230e · #**562** Posted **Jun 4, 2015, 9:37 PM**

Important tweet from @hgparkway

Quote:

Traffic note: three rolling stops Hwy 3 between Grand Marais and EC Row June 5 1 am to 5 am for #hgparkway work. OPP on site.

Sounds like they're finally doing the Highway 3/Labelle street/Bethlehem Avenue intersection which seems to be one of the last prerequisites for opening the part of the highway from Howard to Labelle st. The pedestrian bridge is going up June 9th so I'm thinking this project is the realigning the intersection to accommodate the ramp from 401 WB to Highway 3 WB. I think we might be driving on the parkway before June is over.

sa230e · #**563** Posted **Jun 10, 2015, 7:22 PM**

Pedestrian bridges are going up today at Bethlehem Avenue and Huron Church Line. The bridge at Lambton street will be going up tomorrow.

sa230e · #**564** Posted **Jun 23, 2015, 11:24 PM**

It's almost time...

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/he...ing-to-traffic

Quote:

After five years of construction, traffic detours, dirt and flat-out inconvenience, the $1.4-billion Herb Gray Parkway is days away from being opened up to drivers.

Workers are scrambling to put the final touches on the new 11-kilometre border highway that will for the first time extend Highway 401 through Windsor down to Brighton Beach — the site of the planned Gordie Howe International Bridge.

haljackey · #**565** Posted **Jun 24, 2015, 3:21 AM**

Just looked at all the pics in this thread.

As expected, this project is a very drastic change on the road and the surrounding area. So much time, money and effort has been put into it, and it's had it's fair share of positive and negative news stories.

It's been under construction for so long that I'm sure some of us won't actually be able to believe the road is actually open.

Hopefully it won't be a road to nowhere for long. With this project winding down, work on the bridge should pick up. There's a lot of workers about to have their contracts end, so there's lots to hire to build the bridge!

sa230e · #**566** Posted **Jun 24, 2015, 5:12 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

Just looked at all the pics in this thread.

As expected, this project is a very drastic change on the road and the surrounding area. So much time, money and effort has been put into it, and it's had it's fair share of positive and negative news stories.

It's been under construction for so long that I'm sure some of us won't actually be able to believe the road is actually open.

Hopefully it won't be a road to nowhere for long. With this project winding down, work on the bridge should pick up. There's a lot of workers about to have their contracts end, so there's lots to hire to build the bridge!

It's already not a road to nowhere. It provides a more efficient route to the Ambassador bridge, bypassing seven stoplights. Only the part between Labelle street and Ojibway parkway will be a road to nowhere.

The target date for the bridge is 2020. If we go by the experience for the parkway and add on an extra year to allow for a major screw-up that's six years of road to nowhere.

When all is said and done I plan to do a retrospective video showing the transition over time at all the vantage points I recorded. In the meantime, I'll do another video of the newly opened section in July.

I haven't heard any reports of flooding so I assume the drainage systems withstood that massive storm last night. Nothing like a live experiment to make sure everything works.

sa230e · #**567** Posted **Jun 25, 2015, 12:02 PM**

Sunday is the day. http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/he...end-to-traffic

north 42 · #**568** Posted **Jun 25, 2015, 1:58 PM**

^^^

Oh wow, that's great, I can't wait to check it out!

sa230e · #**569** Posted **Jun 25, 2015, 11:45 PM**

From the HGParkway youtube channel:

Westbound:

• Video Link

Eastbound:

• Video Link

Symz · #**570** Posted **Jun 26, 2015, 4:03 PM**

A lot of pictures are popping up in the local media of this project since it is about to open. I thought I'd share some of them.

source: http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/pa...ndsors-drivers

The next 3 links are sets of photos showing the border road before construction, during construction (recap) and some of the neighbourhoods that had to be torn down for the parkway

http://windsorite.ca/2015/06/photos-...e-the-parkway/

http://windsorite.ca/2015/06/photos-...ods-bulldozed/

http://windsorite.ca/2015/06/photos-...-construction/

Finally an article talking about the first steps toward building the new bridge are a few days away.

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/busines...-next-few-days

sa230e · #**571** Posted **Jun 29, 2015, 6:03 AM**

From the HG parkway Facebook feed:

Quote:

Eastbound lanes of Hwy 401 as part of ‪#‎hgparkway‬ now open.

FenderStrat · #**572** Posted **Jun 30, 2015, 2:48 PM**

I drove the full length yesterday a twice. Once during daylight and the other time after dark.

I have to say I'm very impressed with it. It really doesn't feel Windsor-like at all. Almost feels like being in a real city! haha. It amazes me how fast you can get from the west end to Costco area now!

The only complaint I have is that when I drove it after dark, I found that about half of the tunnels were extremely excessively bright .. like almost blindingly bright when coming from the dark outside. And interestingly, the other half of the tunnels were lit perfectly. I"m guessing this is a technical glitch in system that controls the dynamic lighting that will be fixed?

Either way, it's quite impressive!

north 42 · #**573** Posted **Jun 30, 2015, 2:54 PM**

It's awesome, now we have two expressways to cross the city on, one in the middle of the city and one on the south side.

sa230e · #**574** Posted **Jul 1, 2015, 1:06 AM**

More articles and footage:
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/he...rivers-unaware
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/op...y-parkway-tour
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/opinion...b-gray-parkway

sonysnob · #**575** Posted **Jul 3, 2015, 12:29 AM**

So, I found my way down to Windsor, and all I can say is wow. The Herb Gray Parkway is amazing. Really impressive piece of infrastructure.

sa230e · #**576** Posted **Jul 3, 2015, 5:11 PM**

They really did a great job. And it's only going to get better when it's done and all the trees and vegetation grows.

Symz · #**577** Posted **Jul 4, 2015, 11:33 AM**

I took this drive the other day as well. I took both ways to get the full experience. Although it's not yet done, it's so different. It feels weird, but it's really nice.

What has been built so far definitely feels like a road network you would see in a larger city than Windsor.

FenderStrat · #**578** Posted **Jul 5, 2015, 7:39 PM**

I've driven the 'Herbie' a few more times and I've made another observation. Traffic volumes seem very sparse. It's weird. Huron Church always seemed ridiculously busy with the never ending trucks, but with the new parkway, traffic is all spread out. This road could easily handle 10-15x the traffic volume that it currently seems to be handling which is a good thing because that means that it's built for the future. Amazing what eliminating a dozen traffic lights does. I doubt that there will ever be a need to widen this road during my lifetime.

Innsertnamehere · #**579** Posted **Jul 5, 2015, 11:55 PM**

extremely unlikely this will ever need to be widened to an 8 lane configuration. You need traffic volumes roughly 5x what this will be seeing on opening day, which simply isn't going to happen. Truthfully this should probably have been built as with a 4 lane cross section, but as the part of the 401 east of here is already 6 lanes and the US bridge will be 6 lanes, they went ahead and made it 6 lanes anyway.

haljackey · #**580** Posted **Jul 6, 2015, 11:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

extremely unlikely this will ever need to be widened to an 8 lane configuration. You need traffic volumes roughly 5x what this will be seeing on opening day, which simply isn't going to happen. Truthfully this should probably have been built as with a 4 lane cross section, but as the part of the 401 east of here is already 6 lanes and the US bridge will be 6 lanes, they went ahead and made it 6 lanes anyway.

I agree, 6 lanes aren't really needed past Dougall Parkway or Highway 3.

However, if you're planning on making a sunken highway that will serve long term traffic needs, you may as well make it 6 lanes now. It would be very costly to widen it later and it would also be odd to build it 4 lanes now with room for 6 since that extra lane space is already there.

Next time I'm down in Windsor I plan to give it a drive and give my feedback of this multi-year project. If it's a nice day I may even take some pics and/or video.