Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[Viewfromthe42]

I thought $300 million was the total cost for everything involved with the new highway 7, from Guelph to Kitchener.

[SammyOES]

The bridge project is scheduled to start with advance utility relocation work this year. Bridge rebuilding will start in November 2017 and continue through 2018. According to a city report, the project includes:

If the bridge isn't going to be complete until 2018 - is there really any chance of the whole highway being done by 2020?

As for the comparison to the LRT cost - it's probably not actually a good thing to bring up. I suspect the cost (at least in construction/maintenance/operation terms and not counting externalities) per user of the new highway 7 is significantly cheaper. It just gives more ammunition (even if slightly dishonest ammunition) to the anti-LRT crowd.

[MacBerry]

Not quite a 5-stack. If highway 7 continued west through the interchange, then it probably would be.  As it stands, there's really only 4 distinct levels.

Found a potential "model" for the  "Victoria85" stack including altering slightly the Grand River with the new bridge crossing ... Google search is fun. 

[Smore]

Crews are grubbing for widening/interchanges on Shirley/Bingemans Centre Dr this week. Including the largest wood chipper this WRC'r has ever seen....

[GtwoK]

Does what they mentioned of the Shirley widening include the passthrough to Wellington? I would assume so, considering the article mentioned the terminating of Shirley. Would ba a lot of grading at the end of Wellington if I remember correctly though, no?

EDIT: If it does, would Riverbend still pass through that intersection? Or would the be doing all the rerouting work for that too? I'm not sure how they would temporarily handle this intersection if it suddenly became a 4 way, until the Riverbend connection was removed.

[SammyOES]

Bingemans says it should look like this: http://bingemans.com/hwy7/index.html (although 'early 2016' is probably mid-late 2016).

So passthrough to Wellington with a 4-way stop (presumably) and access still to Riverbend.

[JCnb]

Would a consolidation of street names be in order? Seems like Wellington Street North - Shirley Ave - Bingemans Centre Drive would be quite confusing with no clear break between them.

I could see the new disjointed Shirley Ave dead end keep it's name with Bingemans running to the expressway which would be the dividing line to Wellington. Slight confusion with Shirley Drive further east.

Any word on what is proposed here?

[GtwoK]

The buildings at Bruce / Victoria were being fenced off today, demolition signs were up. We should see these being torn down soon. Maybe they WILL be constructing the Bruce extension to Wellington this year after all!

[Canard]

I dunno, I can't see them starting that if they're just going to rip out the bridge (Victoria) next year. I would imagine they'd do that all at once, instead of building something just to have to close it again for 5 years or whatever.

[SammyOES]

Yeah, I would guess the demolition is going to happen this year with the utility work so that the actual new construction can happen next year with the bridge.

Although it would make life easier for when the bridge is closed if it was done and could be used for a detour.

Edit: The demolition work might even be necessary for some of the utility work thats happening this year.

[GtwoK]

I dunno, I can't see them starting that if they're just going to rip out the bridge (Victoria) next year.  I would imagine they'd do that all at once, instead of building something just to have to close it again for 5 years or whatever.

Why would the extension be closed, if built this year, though? Wellington would still be open, and as Sammy said, it would make a very effective detour. Rather than having to use the 2 lanes on Frederick.

[Canard]

I guess I just can't imagine traffic going through Bruce>Crossing Victoria>Going along this new extension with the entire Victoria bridge being torn out just metres away.

Or wait - did you mean Wellington to Shirley (parallel with Victoria)?

[panamaniac]

I'm wondering why Frederick doesn't figure in this conversation about detours? I seems pretty straightforward to me, especially for eastbound traffic. What am I missing?

[GtwoK]

I guess I just can't imagine traffic going through Bruce>Crossing Victoria>Going along this new extension with the entire Victoria bridge being torn out just metres away.

Or wait - did you mean Wellington to Shirley (parallel with Victoria)?

I was referring to using the Bruce extension as a detour around the Victoria bridge closure. Frederick is an option, but it's only  lanes wide, and I've always found traffic to be congested on the Frederick bridge. This would at least allow traffic from a 4 lane highway to be diverted onto both a 2 lane road (Frederick) and a 4 lane road (Wellington).

This is where the extension is supposed to connect:

[Smore]

I guess I just can't imagine traffic going through Bruce>Crossing Victoria>Going along this new extension with the entire Victoria bridge being torn out just metres away.

Or wait - did you mean Wellington to Shirley (parallel with Victoria)?

I was referring to using the Bruce extension as a detour around the Victoria bridge closure. Frederick is an option, but it's only  lanes wide, and I've always found traffic to be congested on the Frederick bridge. This would at least allow traffic from a 4 lane highway to be diverted onto both a 2 lane road (Frederick) and a 4 lane road (Wellington).

This is where the extension is supposed to connect:

I hadn't noticed, but no cars are on the streets....eerie