General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

New update to the study on whether or not to close the on/off ramps from the highway to Lancaster Street:

Report to Council regarding Lancaster Street and Highway 85 ramps

The project team will take a report to Planning and Works Committee on March 7, 2023 recommending the permanent closure of the two ramps at the Lancaster Street and Highway 85 Interchange. This will allow for an AAA cycling facility along with sidewalks on the Lancaster Street Bridge over Highway 85 and improve Highway 85 operations by reducing collisions.

The next steps for this study are:

-Subject to Council approval, file the Notice of Completion and place the Environmental Study File on the public record for a period of 30 days.
-Continue to work with MTO on the design of the highway in the area of Lancaster Street and Bridgeport Road to implement the ramp closures.
-Confirm timing with MTO for their project to rehabilitate Hwy 85, including the full decommissioning of the Lancaster Street ramps.
-Adjust the timing as necessary of the Regional contract to reconstruct Lancaster Street to coordinate construction with MTO, subject to the receipt of all technical and financial approvals, relocation of utilities and property acquisition.

Link to the full report

They are also asking for delegations to speak to council on March 7.

An interesting fact they slipped into the report: "The free-flow ramps create an uncomfortable condition for cyclists and walkers. This condition exists at nearly all of the urban interchanges in the Region and staff are working with the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to make changes at each location to better support active transportation."

That's great, and I hope you all take the time to go speak. This kind of change to transportation is the kind of thing that can make real long term changes to a city.

As for the "fact" I find it dubious that they're telling us anything we don't already know. It plays like they are starting a comprehensive multi-stakeholder review of all crossings, but if this was going on, they'd have talked about it by now. I'm betting it's still just Bridgeport they're looking at.