Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[the_conestoga_guy]

It's likely lip-service, but I'll post some Doug Ford quotes from today's Record article here for the sake of posterity.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...erloo.html

In other comments, Ford said his government intends to build a new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph, a long-approved project that has faced repeated delays.
...
Ford dropped a big number not seen before when asked to comment on delays in constructing a new Highway 7, a four-lane freeway that’s proposed to run just north of the current two-lane highway.

“We’re putting I believe it’s $210 million (into) the Grand River bridges. So we’re going to start moving on that,” he said.

The province had planned to complete Highway 7 bridges over the Grand River by 2020. The bridges remain unbuilt, but the Ford government has said it may begin bridge construction next year.
Ontario approved a new Highway 7 in 2007 to improve safety and speed goods and people. More than $120 million has been spent to buy property and complete advance work, but the new highway remains without major construction or a completion date.

“I’m going to get a firecracker going and move these guys along,” Ford said. “We’re actually seeing progress now.”

The latest delay happened when the Ministry of Transportation cancelled a 2021 construction tender worth up to $27 million to replace the Frederick Street bridge that spans the expressway in Kitchener.
“There were some (requests for proposals) that had to be cancelled that are going up for re-tendering,” Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris said on behalf of the government. “I don’t want to talk too much about that because we don’t want to really influence the market on it.”

New Democrat MPP Catherine Fife, of Waterloo, doubts the Ford government has made the new Highway 7 a priority. She warns of “serious health and economic impacts by delaying this highway further.”
“This government has been inconsistent in their messaging around the importance of Highway 7. And today’s reassurances don’t ease the minds of people in K-W or Guelph,” Fife said.

[ijmorlan]

Any news on the new crossings under the railway? Those would actually be useful…the Grand River bridges are just going to be white elephants.

[plam]

Meanwhile, it really has become much easier to go between Guelph and Kitchener with GO Transit now.

[SF22]

If they could fix up the Frederick St bridge and make the Bruce St connection (pedestrian & bike-friendly) between Victoria and Wellington, that would be enough to keep me happy for years.

[SammyOES]

“I’m going to get a firecracker going and move these guys along,” Ford said. “We’re actually seeing progress now.”

Lol, that probably plays better when you’re not 5ish years into running things.

[ijmorlan]

Lol, that probably plays better when you’re not 5ish years into running things.

Remember how long Stephen Harper’s government called itself “Canada’s New Government”?

[SF22]

There are traffic counters on the Victoria/Frederick ramps for on-northbound and off-southbound this week. I'm wondering if it might be data-gathering for the eventual readjustment of the Wellington and Frederick/Victoria ramp configuration.

[westwardloo]

Looks like behind the scene Design work is still slowly moving forwards. WSP just completed the Design and Construction report for the bridge over the Grand River. 

https://newhighway7.ca/wp-content/upload...-Final.pdf 

I will wait for the oncoming onslaught of posts complaining about car centric investments. (Europe has highways between major population centres) I still stand by this being a critical piece of infrastructure that will connect the city of Guelph with K-W.  Do I wish all day 2-way GO would come to the Region faster absolutely, but I also see the benefit to improving all mods of transportation.

[cherrypark]

Looks like behind the scene Design work is still slowly moving forwards. WSP just completed the Design and Construction report for the bridge over the Grand River. 

https://newhighway7.ca/wp-content/upload...-Final.pdf 

I will wait for the oncoming onslaught of posts complaining about car centric investments. (Europe has highways between major population centres) I still stand by this being a critical piece of infrastructure that will connect the city of Guelph with K-W.  Do I wish all day 2-way GO would come to the Region faster absolutely, but I also see the benefit to improving all mods of transportation.

Buses use highways too. The induced demand remains a drain on transit demand, but this also benefits enabling Victoria St. to perhaps growth back towards a part of the city than a commuter car sewer over the next couple decades.

[SF22]

Looks like behind the scene Design work is still slowly moving forwards. WSP just completed the Design and Construction report for the bridge over the Grand River. 

https://newhighway7.ca/wp-content/upload...-Final.pdf 

I will wait for the oncoming onslaught of posts complaining about car centric investments. (Europe has highways between major population centres) I still stand by this being a critical piece of infrastructure that will connect the city of Guelph with K-W.  Do I wish all day 2-way GO would come to the Region faster absolutely, but I also see the benefit to improving all mods of transportation.

Buses use highways too. The induced demand remains a drain on transit demand, but this also benefits enabling Victoria St. to perhaps growth back towards a part of the city than a commuter car sewer over the next couple decades.

I honestly believe that we will never see Victoria shrunk from 4/5 to 2 lanes without an alternative route to get towards Guelph. I'd love to see a third LRT line go east-west along Victoria from the proposed Breslau GO station all the way out to the Boardwalk, but you know people will kick their feet and yell about it taking lanes away from cars if there's not another option. I don't love the idea that we'll be cutting through the greenspace near Bingemans, but I don't think we'll be able to get approval for a truly innovative transit change on this stretch without it.

[panamaniac]

Buses use highways too. The induced demand remains a drain on transit demand, but this also benefits enabling Victoria St. to perhaps growth back towards a part of the city than a commuter car sewer over the next couple decades.

I honestly believe that we will never see Victoria shrunk from 4/5 to 2 lanes without an alternative route to get towards Guelph. I'd love to see a third LRT line go east-west along Victoria from the proposed Breslau GO station all the way out to the Boardwalk, but you know people will kick their feet and yell about it taking lanes away from cars if there's not another option. I don't love the idea that we'll be cutting through the greenspace near Bingemans, but I don't think we'll be able to get approval for a truly innovative transit change on this stretch without it.

Has it ever been proposed?  I find it hard to imagine.  It's not that many years ago that the fight on Victoria S.  was widening to 4 lanes vs 3 lanes.

[ac3r]

I'm fine with Victoria Street being as many lanes as it is...I think the extremist anti-car people tend to forget we still do actually need roads for things. Sometimes they'll need a lot of lanes. It's an incredibly important road leading to the core of our region.

But...at the very least they could beautify it and improve the safety. It's soooo ugly.

Also I think any east-west LRT would likely run along Ottawa. Victoria would be an easy path to route a train on but from a TOD planning perspective it isn't as ideal as Ottawa would be.

[cherrypark]

It is a truly barren, non-place currently. The MUTs added make it at least accessible but its such an unpleasant place to be outside of a car (or even inside of one).

[KevinL]

It suffers from being both a primary transportation route (road) and commercial node (street), making it a dreaded 'stroad'. If the new highway can take over the road function, then it can be reconfigured to work better as (mainly) a street.

[SF22]

I honestly believe that we will never see Victoria shrunk from 4/5 to 2 lanes without an alternative route to get towards Guelph. I'd love to see a third LRT line go east-west along Victoria from the proposed Breslau GO station all the way out to the Boardwalk, but you know people will kick their feet and yell about it taking lanes away from cars if there's not another option. I don't love the idea that we'll be cutting through the greenspace near Bingemans, but I don't think we'll be able to get approval for a truly innovative transit change on this stretch without it.

Has it ever been proposed?  I find it hard to imagine.  It's not that many years ago that the fight on Victoria S.  was widening to 4 lanes vs 3 lanes.

I read it somewhere, months ago, on an official document. But it was something I stumbled across on a tangential project, so the likelihood of me finding it again anytime soon is pretty low. I'm not sure if they want to shrink Victoria past Edna (although there are the rumours that they want to put another LRT line down Victoria), but there's definitely talk about having it be 2 lanes from about Strange/West (where it already is 2 lanes) all the way through to the highway.