General Road and Highway Discussion

[KevinL]

The Charles-to-Duke work on Queen has hit a snag: only one bid came in, at almost double the budget. This appears to be due to the otherwise-interested contractors being too busy with other work, so it will be re-tendered later in the year.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/929...en-street/

[panamaniac]

The Charles-to-Duke work on Queen has hit a snag: only one bid came in, at almost double the budget. This appears to be due to the otherwise-interested contractors being too busy with other work, so it will be re-tendered later in the year.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/929...en-street/

Disappointing.

[jeffster]

The Charles-to-Duke work on Queen has hit a snag: only one bid came in, at almost double the budget. This appears to be due to the otherwise-interested contractors being too busy with other work, so it will be re-tendered later in the year.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/929...en-street/

It's going to suck for a lot of contractors when work dries up.

[Rainrider22]

The Charles-to-Duke work on Queen has hit a snag: only one bid came in, at almost double the budget. This appears to be due to the otherwise-interested contractors being too busy with other work, so it will be re-tendered later in the year.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/929...en-street/

It's going to suck for a lot of contractors when work dries up.

I predict that next year multiple contractors will bid and the price will be back to what they budgeted for. It will work out in the end to wait a little bit longer.

[panamaniac]

The Charles-to-Duke work on Queen has hit a snag: only one bid came in, at almost double the budget. This appears to be due to the otherwise-interested contractors being too busy with other work, so it will be re-tendered later in the year.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/929...en-street/

It's going to suck for a lot of contractors when work dries up.

They've had a remarkably long run of good fortune, istm.

[boatracer]

There is a new Regional road project out for bid. It is the South Boundary Road along the south end of Cambridge between Water (Hwy 24) and the new Franklin Blvd extension. It is a 4 lane divided road and will have roundabouts at either end, three eco passages for wildlife and a 3m multiuse trail along its entirety. It will cross Cheese Factory Road over the bridge that was built last year. It will be lit along the whole route and have a speed limit of 70km/h

Documents are here:
https://regionofwaterloo.bidsandtenders....a7396b5eb5

[danbrotherston]

There is a new Regional road project out for bid. It is the South Boundary Road along the south end of Cambridge between Water (Hwy 24) and the new Franklin Blvd extension. It is a 4 lane divided road and will have roundabouts at either end, three eco passages for wildlife and a 3m multiuse trail along its entirety. It will cross Cheese Factory Road over the bridge that was built last year. It will be lit along the whole route and have a speed limit of 70km/h

Documents are here:
https://regionofwaterloo.bidsandtenders....a7396b5eb5

It's funny because this road is named and claimed to be a boundary road (that's why there's no MUT on the other side).  Anyone want to make a long term bet about how long it takes development to spread beyond this road?

[danbrotherston]

The driver who hit and killed Leanne Holland Brown has been charged with various charges including driving under the influence:

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/driver-char...-1.4403280

[tomh009]

The driver who hit and killed Leanne Holland Brown has been charged with various charges including driving under the influence:

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/driver-char...-1.4403280

According to a press release, he was charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death and driving a vehicle with cannabis readily available.
(…)
Police confirmed later that he was impaired by a drug when the crash happened, but would not elaborate what he was impaired by.

Based on the charges, I think we can make a good guess as to the drug that was involved.

[Chris]

The driver who hit and killed Leanne Holland Brown has been charged with various charges including driving under the influence:

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/driver-char...-1.4403280

According to a press release, he was charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death and driving a vehicle with cannabis readily available.
(…)
Police confirmed later that he was impaired by a drug when the crash happened, but would not elaborate what he was impaired by.

Based on the charges, I think we can make a good guess as to the drug that was involved.

CBC article listed cannabis as the drug. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.5118452
Although readily available vs what could be in his system are two different things.

Now, a 56-year-old Cambridge man has been charged with a number of offences, including dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death and drive vehicle with cannabis readily available.

[SammyOES2]

I’m curious what people think of the idea of increasing some 400-series highways to 120km/h.

I generally agree with it but have always thought that the biggest problem isn’t speed but the very large differences in speeds that people are going (between 100 and 150). I’d like 120 if it actually helps here - and in particular is combined with meaningful efforts to reduce speeders from going 130+.

But it feels like as long as we have the heavy traffic and truck traffic that we have now we’re still going to have pretty large speed differences between vehicles. If cars are all going 120+ while trucks are at 105 and hanging out in the middle lanes... that seems like it’s going to make things worse.

[timio]

If limits were to increase, I would hope for much stronger enforcement on slow traffic in the passing lanes, along with those who pass unnecessarily on the right.

With budgets being cut for the sake of cutting things, I'm highly skeptical of this happening.

[tomh009]

If limits were to increase, I would hope for much stronger enforcement on slow traffic in the passing lanes, along with those who pass unnecessarily on the right.

This is what I would like to see, too. A realistic speed limit with enforcement.

[ijmorlan]

If limits were to increase, I would hope for much stronger enforcement on slow traffic in the passing lanes, along with those who pass unnecessarily on the right.

This is what I would like to see, too. A realistic speed limit with enforcement.

And an end to the idea that it is somehow “blocking traffic” if I’m hanging out in the left lane at a speed for which theoretically I could be ticketed hundreds of dollars in speeding fines.

Current practice seems to validate that traffic moving smoothly at 120km/h is OK; but an increase in the limit to 120km/h shouldn’t mean that now everybody starts going 140km/h.

Maybe we could combine tolling with ubiquitous speed enforcement: install 407-style tolling on all 4xx highways, and have a surcharge for going faster than 120km/h between entrance and exit. We would need a more rigorous approach to unidentifiable cars, however.

I’m honestly not sure how serious I am about these ideas.

[danbrotherston]

This is what I would like to see, too. A realistic speed limit with enforcement.

And an end to the idea that it is somehow “blocking traffic” if I’m hanging out in the left lane at a speed for which theoretically I could be ticketed hundreds of dollars in speeding fines.

Current practice seems to validate that traffic moving smoothly at 120km/h is OK; but an increase in the limit to 120km/h shouldn’t mean that now everybody starts going 140km/h.

Maybe we could combine tolling with ubiquitous speed enforcement: install 407-style tolling on all 4xx highways, and have a surcharge for going faster than 120km/h between entrance and exit. We would need a more rigorous approach to unidentifiable cars, however.

I’m honestly not sure how serious I am about these ideas.

There are two things that are only somewhat connected being discussed, the speed of travel, and the speed limit.

I don't care as much about the speed limit as I do about the speed of travel. If the change to the speed limit was made without changing the speed of travel, then I probably don't care.

I highly suspect that increasing the speed limit to 120 would result in the speed of travel increasing to ~135, which would have a resulting increase in fuel consumption, death, and destruction.  I strongly oppose that.

Increasing the speed limit without increasing the speeds would require substantial enforcement, and I suspect I'd see pigs fly before Ontarian drivers accept the idea of automated enforcement on the highway, or the tax increase needed to fund pervasive live enforcement.

The biggest fears I have right now stem from the fact I have zero faith in our government to make good decisions.