Innes-Walkley-Hunt Club Connector | Phase 1 U/C

[Dado]

This really should have been done as part of building Hunt Club in the first place, so I don't have any objection to it. That said, the fault for the fact that it needs to be built at all can be better dumped on the MTO's doorstep. If there had been an interchange at Russell/Ramsayville rather than at Anderson, Hunt Club could have just been extended to Russell and we wouldn't need to add an extra interchange. The Anderson interchange really doesn't seem to have any purpose at all except to fill up space since there is virtually nothing in any direction for it to serve. A few people from Carlsbad Springs might use it but I suspect most use the Boundary Rd interchange (they would have been better off with an interchange at 8th Line or even Leitrim). Even with the way-distant future extension of Earl Armstrong Rd I doubt the Anderson interchange will be much used; a new interchange in the vicinity of 8th Line is more likely.

[waterloowarrior]

Here's the AADT from 2006 for the 417

Rockdale to Boundary (Embrun/Vars) - 28 100
Boundary to Anderson (Russell) - 33 800
Anderson to Walkley - 34 900
Walkley to Innes - 61 400

[waterloowarrior]

Originally Posted by Dado

This really should have been done as part of building Hunt Club in the first place, so I don't have any objection to it. That said, the fault for the fact that it needs to be built at all can be better dumped on the MTO's doorstep. If there had been an interchange at Russell/Ramsayville rather than at Anderson, Hunt Club could have just been extended to Russell and we wouldn't need to add an extra interchange. The Anderson interchange really doesn't seem to have any purpose at all except to fill up space since there is virtually nothing in any direction for it to serve. A few people from Carlsbad Springs might use it but I suspect most use the Boundary Rd interchange (they would have been better off with an interchange at 8th Line or even Leitrim). Even with the way-distant future extension of Earl Armstrong Rd I doubt the Anderson interchange will be much used; a new interchange in the vicinity of 8th Line is more likely.

I found this Citizen article from 1971 that called the 417 the "Ramsayville-Vars freeway" Unfortunately part of the text is wiped out so I don't know if it had any details on the route/interchange choice

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

I found this Citizen article from 1971 that called the 417 the "Ramsayville-Vars freeway" Unfortunately part of the text is wiped out so I don't know if it had any details on the route/interchange choice

I love the text in the watch ad that is part of the link...aristocratic? hippie?

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Dado

This really should have been done as part of building Hunt Club in the first place, so I don't have any objection to it. That said, the fault for the fact that it needs to be built at all can be better dumped on the MTO's doorstep. If there had been an interchange at Russell/Ramsayville rather than at Anderson, Hunt Club could have just been extended to Russell and we wouldn't need to add an extra interchange. The Anderson interchange really doesn't seem to have any purpose at all except to fill up space since there is virtually nothing in any direction for it to serve. A few people from Carlsbad Springs might use it but I suspect most use the Boundary Rd interchange (they would have been better off with an interchange at 8th Line or even Leitrim). Even with the way-distant future extension of Earl Armstrong Rd I doubt the Anderson interchange will be much used; a new interchange in the vicinity of 8th Line is more likely.

I have to disagree on this. Anderson Road was the logical connection to both Gloucester North and Gloucester South. Going north, it is the only crossing through the Mer Bleue. This is the 417 exit I use the most often.

We also have to remember that in 1971 that Hunt Club Road was nothing more than a sleepy country road. East of Bank Street, it was a short dead end road and it didn't even directly run off of Bank. This was long before Hunt Club was envisioned as a major arterial.

I found this Citizen article from 1971 that called the 417 the "Ramsayville-Vars freeway" Unfortunately part of the text is wiped out so I don't know if it had any details on the route/interchange choice
Today 01:03 PM

This was the first part of today's 417 that opened. Too bad the digitization of the microfilm failed here. To see the full article would require access to the microfilm at the downtown library or the National Archives.

[Jasonhouse]

Updated thread title for ya.

[Davis137]

A new highway interchange at the also new Huntclub exension from Hawthorne will likely increase the traffic volumes seen on Hunt Club, but will be good for businesses in the area. It should also prove an additional selling point for houses in the interior of Southkeys/Greenboro if there is a closer highway access than Walkley...

[adam-machiavelli]

Originally Posted by Davis137

A new highway interchange at the also new Huntclub exension from Hawthorne will likely increase the traffic volumes seen on Hunt Club, but will be good for businesses in the area. It should also prove an additional selling point for houses in the interior of Southkeys/Greenboro if there is a closer highway access than Walkley...

Yay, sprawl!

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by adam-machiavelli

Yay, sprawl!

Wouldn't this qualify as intensification? After all, it is inside the Greenbelt.

[adam-machiavelli]

^^^
1. It's close to the freeway, thus increasing congestion, automobile reliance, and the political pressure to widen the freeway.

2. It's just houses so no it's not true intensification. True intensification is low and medium-rise condos and apartments and rowhousing.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by adam-machiavelli

^^^
1. It's close to the freeway, thus increasing congestion, automobile reliance, and the political pressure to widen the freeway.

2. It's just houses so no it's not true intensification. True intensification is low and medium-rise condos and apartments and rowhousing.

Aren't we getting awfully restrictive in our definitions?

Every part of the city is close to some major roadway. For that matter, the Glebe is closer to the Queensway than Greenboro is to the 417.

As far as I am concerned, any measure that makes better use of land within the existing built up area is valid intensification.

How can additions to Greenboro be called sprawl when it has no room to expand beyond its existing boundaries? There is also a good stock of row housing and stacked townhouses within Greenboro. Just remember that Greenboro is built on swampland and is not suitable for multistorey development. I would rather see some infill there on underused land than forcing it out into Osgoode.

[Acajack]

The key is to have other uses (like commercial) mixed in with the residential.

There are plenty of mixed-density residential suburban areas out there with singles, rows and even apartments, but if they are still single use (residential) they aren't much better in terms of urban-style atmosphere than traditional tracts with mile upon mile of detached houses on wide lots.

[jitterbug]

I live in Greenboro, one block from Hunt Club Road. While I don't relish the prospect of heavier traffic, especially truck traffic, on Hunt Club, it's only logical that Hunt Club Road spans the full length between 416 in the west and 417 in the east, thereby finally completing the southern ring road. I don't see how such a connection will necessarily lead to more sprawl given that it's essentially inside the greenbelt.

[MaxHeadroom]

The area bounded by Hunt Club, Conroy, Leitrim, and 417 is all Greenbelt.

There is a new subdivision going in at Anderson and 8th Line, but I don't that in of itself is driven by the project.

[migo]

Originally Posted by MaxHeadroom

There is a new subdivision going in at Anderson and 8th Line...

Where did you get this info?

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by migo

Where did you get this info?

Seems rather unlikely since that is not in the urban growth area. Unless it is a large rural/exurban development. One thing somewhat attractive is the proximity to a long-abandoned rail line that could be reinstalled to serve Russell and Embrun in a very long-term commuter rail scenario (I would think the VIA corridor line through Vars, Limoges and Casselman would be first though).

The Anderson Road interchange is fairly logical to me as there is not much else to serve the local area. It is more useful for sure for traffic coming to/from the west (commuters to Carlsbad Springs and southeast Gloucester) than from the east.

If there were no development controls there, I would think there would be a large number of commercial services such as fast-food restaurants at that interchange.

[RTWAP]

Originally Posted by adam-machiavelli

Yay, sprawl!

I disagree.

A Hunt Club interchange will allow for more effective travel between suburbs.

I think forcing suburb-to-suburb traffic to travel via the core is anti-intensification. In most modern two-income families it is hard to arrange to have both adults work in the same location. At least one person and perhaps both will need to commute some significant distance. If our road system only supports commuter traffic to and from downtown then we're reducing the likelihood that a general employment centre outside the downtown area will ever flourish.

I agree with the argument that we don't want to build freeways to serve those traffic flows. By the time demand is at those levels we should be serving it with relatively direct and rapid transit. But we need to encourage the creation of that demand growth in the first place if we're hoping to have a string of general employment centres throughout the region.

[DubberDom]

Originally Posted by migo

Where did you get this info?

I think he's referring to the adult-living bungalow community that i think Brigil built in that area.

[MaxHeadroom]

Originally Posted by migo

Where did you get this info?

Umm, perhaps I happened to be driving by, and saw the signs and heavy equipment moving around on site?

I don't have any more details, but if I go by there again I'll at least get the developer's name.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by DubberDom

I think he's referring to the adult-living bungalow community that i think Brigil built in that area.

This it?
http://www.brigil.com/anderson/