Highways in Canada

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

Canada should just annex northern Maine.

Besides I am not sure if anybody actually leaves Montreal:

You weren't really going to drive to Ontario were you?

You can leave Montreal, but Montreal never leaves you. I miss it so.

[sonysnob]

Staying with Québec, this is from a drive I took last fall in the Mauricie Region of the province:







Beautiful part of the country. More here:
http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/PQ/R/155/

[vanman]

Originally Posted by catkat

Nice pic. Where is that location on google maps? Looks like an impressive 8 lane highway. Bigger than anything Vancouver has.... inb4 gateway

For better or worse, the new Cape Horn interchange u/c will be one of the largest in the country:

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

I fluked out and stumbled across these gems of the new Cape Horn interchange earlier today. Kinda neat!!

Cape Horn interchange schematic:



Cape Horn interchange looking eastward toward new location of Port Mann Bridge: [Cape Horn Bluff on the left, Lougheed Hwy on upper left, MHB in upper middle:



Cape Horn interchange looking westward with Lougheed Hwy directional ramps in the upper middle:



Source: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...12&id=13819573

[haljackey]

Drove on Highway 8 in Kitcherner for the first time today. This freaked me out:


via http://www.thekingshighway.ca/PHOTOS/Hwy7photos5.htm

Even though I knew where I was going, this sign still confused me and made rethink while cars were swerving around me.

What a crazy contrast between K-W and London. One has two 8 lane freeways, the other a stub (Highbury) and an embarrassment (Veterans Memorial).

[MolsonExport]

Clearly, the province has placed its bets where growth is going to happen. Not the forest city.

[feepa]

London could really use a freeway running from the north to the 401...

Any of the London cross town routes pretty much suck, but traffic is never that bad.... Only real traffic tie ups come from the many train tracks and their grade level crossings that slice up the city.

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by feepa

London could really use a freeway running from the north to the 401...

Stating the obvious. The City wanted to upgrade an at-grade expressway to a fully grade-separated freeway, but the timeframe the planning committee presented was ridiculous. They got up and told everyone, with a straight face, that it would be completed no later than 2062.

Keep in mind this was a road that took only 2 years to build.

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Clearly, the province has placed its bets where growth is going to happen. Not the forest city.

See above. The province isn't "betting" on where growth is going to happen, they're funding the least retarded municipal government. And I really can't blame them- when you come out with a laughable game plan like ours, who the hell you you think is going to invest in you?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Drove on Highway 8 in Kitcherner for the first time today. This freaked me out:


via http://www.thekingshighway.ca/PHOTOS/Hwy7photos5.htm

l).

Is that snow still piled up on the right-hand side Jersey barrier? I am surprised there is any left there - if this picture was taken today. No such snow left on roadside in Ottawa-Gatineau these days. Only the biggest piles in parking lots and isolated patches in shaded parts of the woods remain.

[Tibor420]

This isnt a current picture its been +20 C for the past week... 26-27 today... there hasnt been a speck of snow here in quite sometime

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Wharn

Stating the obvious. The City wanted to upgrade an at-grade expressway to a fully grade-separated freeway, but the timeframe the planning committee presented was ridiculous. They got up and told everyone, with a straight face, that it would be completed no later than 2062.

Keep in mind this was a road that took only 2 years to build.



See above. The province isn't "betting" on where growth is going to happen, they're funding the least retarded municipal government. And I really can't blame them- when you come out with a laughable game plan like ours, who the hell you you think is going to invest in you?

I agree with the boneheaded political factors, but nevertheless the province forecasts a far higher population increase for the four-headed monster down the 401.

http://www.ontla.on.ca/library/repos...000/248456.pdf

K-W gets the highways and the light rail; London gets Oxfart and Hyde Parking Lot Road.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

Staying with Québec, this is from a drive I took last fall in the Mauricie Region of the province:

Jaw-dropping. Just by staring hard at this photo for four or five seconds I can almost summon up the adrenalin charge you get careening down hills like these at 80 km/h on a road bike. I think I need to do some riding in rural Quebec this summer. Anybody know where the best hills are? (like in the photo).

Here's some footage of me riding in France a few years ago. That's me coming up behind Floyd Landis at the 40-second mark.

• Video Link

[sonysnob]

^ Those photos are of Highway 155 north of Shawinigan. There are some hills on that road, most of it is fairly flat because by in large it follows the river. There are some great hills on some of the 300-series routes northeast of the Gatineau. Big hills, but they tend to lack the waterfront view.

[ssiguy]

In terms of a proper road system London is a write off.

[Dirt_Devil]

Some pictures taken by myself on March 24 2012 of some QC City highways.


Pont Pierre-Laporte going north, entering Quebec City from the south shore:







Henry-IV highway, going north:




This section will be enlarged to 3 lanes in each direction in 2013 (luckily)




La capitale highway going east. Bus lane on the right:







Laurentienne highway going north:




Henry-IV going south (you usually have a great view of the city from here but the picture doesnt really show it:




Fairly impressive highway system for a region of 765 000. And you did not see Charest highway, Duplessis highway, Robert-Bourassa highway, Dufferin highway and Jean-Lesage highway yet!

[Wharn]

Originally Posted by Dirt_Devil

Fairly impressive highway system for a region of 765 000. And you did not see Charest highway, Duplessis highway, Robert-Bourassa highway, Dufferin highway and Jean-Lesage highway yet!

I believe Quebec City has one of the densest freeway systems in North America. It's something I love to point out to people who claim Good Freeways + Good Downtown can't be done. For some reason I think the Dufferin-Montmorency autoroute is pretty cool, the elevated part by the river reminds me of the Gardiner and gives a pretty good view of the skyline as you approach from the East.

Originally Posted by ssiguy

In terms of a proper road system London is a write off.

London's road system could be considered "proper" if it had 100,000 people, maybe 200,000. But for a city of 350,000 it's just laughable. I can't imagine how Winnipeggers must feel, since their city is about twice the size of London but with the exact same kind of network: arterials everywhere with some completely irrelevant and inadequate freeway stubs.

[haljackey]

The Windsor-Essex Parkway (Highway 401 extension) is starting to take shape:


Aerial images of the Windsor-Essex Parkway/Des images aériennes de l’Autoroute de WE by The Windsor-Essex Parkway, on Flickr


Aerial images of the Windsor-Essex Parkway/Des images aériennes de l’Autoroute de WE by The Windsor-Essex Parkway, on Flickr

More content here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=188722

[Symz]

Now they just need to figure out what they're going to do with 100,000 dump trucks of extra dirt they're removing from the project site that they have no re-use for within the project.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Symz

Now they just need to figure out what they're going to do with 100,000 dump trucks of extra dirt they're removing from the project site that they have no re-use for within the project.

Create a land bridge to the USA?

If not, I'm sure a lot of it could be used to make the approaches for a bridge. The rest could be sold as topsoil while the dirt could make a pretty slick ski hill.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by haljackey

Create a land bridge to the USA?

If not, I'm sure a lot of it could be used to make the approaches for a bridge. The rest could be sold as topsoil while the dirt could make a pretty slick ski hill.

People have talked about what to do with the dirt. If you read the articles I posted in the WE Parkway thread it turns out the Libs left it up to the contractor and the contractor has just been going about their business thinking the province had it figured out and now it's go time and they're trying to figure out what to do with all the excess dirt now.

3.9 million cubic metres of soil will be unearthed of which 1.3 million cubic meters are not needed. Windsor and Essex county being so flat making a ski hill would be an awesome idea. The only catch has been the lack of snow this area gets sometimes. This past winter we only had snow on the ground for 2 days and one day it melted by mid afternoon. Only once did I have to shovel and I probably could have gotten by with just sweeping it away.

Anyways, back to the highways. It really is awesome the scope of this project but it is difficult to get a good vantage point to actually get some pictures.

[Mininari]

Originally Posted by Wharn

I believe Quebec City has one of the densest freeway systems in North America. It's something I love to point out to people who claim Good Freeways + Good Downtown can't be done. For some reason I think the Dufferin-Montmorency autoroute is pretty cool, the elevated part by the river reminds me of the Gardiner and gives a pretty good view of the skyline as you approach from the East.

London's road system could be considered "proper" if it had 100,000 people, maybe 200,000. But for a city of 350,000 it's just laughable. I can't imagine how Winnipeggers must feel, since their city is about twice the size of London but with the exact same kind of network: arterials everywhere with some completely irrelevant and inadequate freeway stubs.

People here are mostly frustrated with the lack of interchanges at key intersections, and the glacial development of key missing pieces of roadway. The stronger frustration lies around the lack of rapid transit, and what just opened (3.5km busway) as being underbuilt, and nearly useless. Winnipeg should see some major road investment over the coming years due to the blossoming CentrePort Canada Project (CentrePort Canada Way is U/C); new bypasses, maybe even a freeway upgrade to the South Perimeter.

But yeah, I can't really speak for Winnipeg too strongly since I've only been here for 5 years, and those 5 years have been good to the city.