Highways in Canada

[sonysnob]

My next website update features Ontario's Highway QEW/403 through Burlington and Oakville. HOV lanes were opened along the highway late in 2010 with construction work completed in 2011. Here are a few sample images:







I hope to have this page updated in the next few days with additional photos of the HOV lanes.

[Symz]

Windsor's EC Row Expressway

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mswiech...l-1276583@N25/

Looks like it's taken from the Central Rd bridge looking west.

[harls]

This is old (2010) but it shows Quebec's Autoroute 50 under construction, from the POV of a low flying airplane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDs8FXLwipE&lr=1

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Symz

Windsor's EC Row Expressway

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mswiech...l-1276583@N25/

Looks like it's taken from the Central Rd bridge looking west.

I really like that E.C. Row pic!

I've seen that A50 video before. It makes me want to drive out there and take some photos of the new highway myself. Particularly of that high river bridge. It's impressive

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by harls

This is old (2010) but it shows Quebec's Autoroute 50 under construction, from the POV of a low flying airplane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDs8FXLwipE&lr=1

looks like a nice drive (soon).

[Dwils01]

Another 15km of Hwy 69 will be completed south of Estaire by the end of the summer.
I think it will be close to 75km total, which means they are almost halfway there to making the highway fully divided.
I wonder if it will be still completed by 2017 at which time it will become Hwy 400.

[harls]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

looks like a nice drive (soon).

Itl'll be done this year. there is only 24 km left (Fassett to Montebello). It is still a super-2 highway, though. Don't know how much traffic it will take from the Ottawa-Montreal corridor.

Sonysnob, that bridge over the Rivière Rouge is impressive, but when you cross it you barely even notice it. It is pretty much a straight line right across. The engineers involved in this one deserve muchos kudos.

[MolsonExport]

Been rafting 4-5 times along the Riviere Rouge. Awesome, it was.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Dwils01

Another 15km of Hwy 69 will be completed south of Estaire by the end of the summer.
I think it will be close to 75km total, which means they are almost halfway there to making the highway fully divided.
I wonder if it will be still completed by 2017 at which time it will become Hwy 400.

I doubt that it will be finished by 2017. It seems to take about four years of construction to get 20 or so km of new highway going, and I think there is still over 100km of highway left to twin.

Maybe by 2025?

I stopped and took these on my way to the Soo from Toronto a few weeks ago. These are of the new highway taken just south of the new Hwy 637 interchange.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

Itl'll be done this year. there is only 24 km left (Fassett to Montebello). It is still a super-2 highway, though. Don't know how much traffic it will take from the Ottawa-Montreal corridor.

I think it will drain a lot of traffic from the 417 even though it is just a super-2. Getting from the Quebec side to the 417 through Ottawa is increasingly complex due to growing traffic congestion and it's a real pain anytime during daylight hours I now find. Maybe if you are coming back from Montreal at night you would take the 417 since traffic in Ottawa would be light but otherwise... for most on the Quebec side unless you are going to the West Island it will probably mean a half-hour more going through Ottawa compared to the 50.

Even with the missing segment I find the A50 is already quite busy and most people I know in Gatineau are already taking it when they travel to Montreal.

[waterloowarrior]

Some A-30 pics - Feb 2012
http://www.na30.ca/Home.aspx

[Dwils01]

Originally Posted by sonysnob

I doubt that it will be finished by 2017. It seems to take about four years of construction to get 20 or so km of new highway going, and I think there is still over 100km of highway left to twin.

2017 was suppose to be the completion date 8 years ago. But like everything in this province, it's behind schedule.

After this new section is complete there will be 85km left to twin.

[FrAnKs]

Very nice pictures guys ! ... and I can't wait to drive on that new stretch of the A30. I guess the view up the big bridge will be breathtaking !

-------------------------------

That's a new video I did last week going South to Downtown Quebec city on A73 - A973 and Route 175.

• Video Link

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I think it will drain a lot of traffic from the 417 even though it is just a super-2. Getting from the Quebec side to the 417 through Ottawa is increasingly complex due to growing traffic congestion and it's a real pain anytime during daylight hours I now find. Maybe if you are coming back from Montreal at night you would take the 417 since traffic in Ottawa would be light but otherwise... for most on the Quebec side unless you are going to the West Island it will probably mean a half-hour more going through Ottawa compared to the 50.

Even with the missing segment I find the A50 is already quite busy and most people I know in Gatineau are already taking it when they travel to Montreal.

They could also take the 50 to the bridge at Hawkesbury and break off to the 417/40 there as well...

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

They could also take the 50 to the bridge at Hawkesbury and break off to the 417/40 there as well...

Yes, some people do this also. It's not a bad route to take from Gatineau to the western part of Montreal.

[Hybrid247]

Is A50 nearly complete? Transport Quebec says the final portion between Montbello and Thurso is suppose to be complete in 2012.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Hybrid247

Is A50 nearly complete? Transport Quebec says the final portion between Montbello and Thurso is suppose to be complete in 2012.

Yes, correct. It will open this fall.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Dwils01

2017 was suppose to be the completion date 8 years ago. But like everything in this province, it's behind schedule.

Maybe I have said this before, but I don't know if the twinning process has really fallen behind... I've always found the 2017 date to be unrealistic.

Quebec has been twinning its highway 175 between Quebec City and the Chicoutimi Region, and MTQ seems to be twinning this highway faster than the MTO is with Hwy 69... but, Hwy 175 is more or less being straight twinned, so any problems with the geometry of the existing road are more or less being maintained with the four lane road. Unlike 175, the MTO is completely reconstructing Hwy 69... even the stretch where the highway is being straight twinned near Burwash, the existing roadway had all of its pavement removed right down to subgrade. This is approach leaves travelers with a much better highway once construction is finished, but it costs way more and is much more time consuming.

Some of the sections of Hwy 400 through northern Simcoe County look like they were twinned without the emphasis put on the existing alignment -- a lot of that is pretty heaved now.

Just my thoughts. btw, Autoroute 30 looks awesome.

[haljackey]

• Video Link

http://youtu.be/Z_gVmOfAvG4

[DrJoe]

^ Cool vid.

You'd be amazed the stories I've heard of people too downright scared to even drive on the 401...people who turn off their radios before going on it. Obviously you get used to if you drive it often but even then if you ever stop and look at everything going on around you it is pretty intimidating.

Are there any highways that are poised to pass the 401 as the busiest in the world? Although at a consistent 12-18 lanes across the city it'd be hard to imagine anyone going much bigger.