Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[danbrotherston]

We could build decent road capacity by widening the existing township highway to four lanes, and making a smooth connection from it to the end of Shirley (and on through Bingeman Centre) to the parkway. But the province has decreed we get an expressway instead, so that's what we plan around.

The thing about Shirley Ave/Bingeman Centre, it needs some work to be brought up to standards for speeds and driveway accesses. The currently posted speed limit is 50 past Riverbend Dr, which is kind of absurd, given that it's a 4-lane road with median that's likely safe to be driving 70km/h. The things that are stopping this are the shoulder bike lane which should be removed and put above the curb and the large number driveways on the South side.



Given the number of driveway accesses, there really ought to be a separate access road south of Bingemans Centre Drive just to serve the industrial driveways on a separate street than the main East-West connector road so the speed limit can be raised.



The section of Shirley Dr East of Bingemans to Victoria has too many driveway accesses and bends to be brought up to higher speed or capacity road, you may need to route a new Highway 7 closer to the rail corridor, or compromise and keep it on Bingemans Centre Dr to Lackner.



Ideally though, I'd like to see the whole thing scrapped except for the Bruce St. connector. Remove some directional ramps to increase weaving distance and improve safety on the Conestoga Parkway. Add the directional ramps Eastward back in, and call it done.





Compared with what the province is proposing, that's 3 fewer rail tunnels, 3 fewer overpasses, and the Edna ramps are maintained. It wouldn't preclude building an overpass in the future, but with the presence of alternate routes across the Grand River and into Guelph, I don't see who this really helps except for making countryside land around Breslau more developable. The 401 still becomes a bottleneck past Highway 6.

The design of the reconstructed portion is the fault of the province. The engineers there don't have the slightest idea how to design a street....so they designed what they know...a divided freeway and then signed it at 50 km/h. Honestly the engineers involved shouldn't be allowed to design roads...they're dangerously incompetent.

OTOH, the road is already designed to be a 70km/h highway. And as for the driveways and bike lanes, as our regional engineers like to say "that meets all modern engineering standards"...by which they mean, death and injury is a design feature.

So it could easily be the new highway, no extra work needed to meet provincial standards. But if you really want to make our roads safe (which we all do, even those of us who want there to be fewer cars) a service road would be pretty easy to build here and is the easy solution to stroads: https://thecutstack.substack.com/p/stroads-but-good-ff9

[neonjoe]

Just a note
Bingemans Centre Dr is under the jurisdiction of the City of Kitchener
The province built it the way it was, but any changes are up to the city

The city installed the pedestrian refuge islands on the street. 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.6820403

Speed limit on Kitchener street not expected to change until multi-use trail built
https://archive.ph/WwcnO

Based on the type of the road and the fact that it could be of regional importance it should really be a Regional Road. Both Edna and Bruce are Regional Roads
https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/livin...y-Name.pdf

[plam]

Luisa D'Amato has a column saying that highway 7 just isn't going to be built and maybe shouldn't be built, which sounds pretty sensible to me. Sometimes she's right...

https://www.therecord.com/opinion/column...4cc6d.html

The new Highway 7 just isn’t going to get built, despite government promises. So let’s just fix up the old highway and move on, Luisa D’Amato argues.

[Spokes]

Oh my god. I agreed with Louisa D'Amato. I never thought it would happen.

[Rainrider22]

It has happened to me a few times now. I am not sure what that means !!!

[neonjoe]

Perhaps WRC is starting to influence her.

[ac3r]

I do wonder how many in the media and politics lurk this forum. I know they're on Reddit at least, so I wouldn't be surprised to learn a couple come here.

[SF22]

I just need them to replace the Frederick St bridge before they decide to pull the plug on this project, PLEASE, my crumbling bridge has been hanging on for far too long.

[neonjoe]

Here's another announcement about things that have already been announced before!
https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/10041...-highway-7

[KevinL]

I actually forgot they hadn't yet replaced the Frederick bridge (which this announcement confirms they're doing). That's how long this is taking.

[SammyOES]

And the announcement comes with the same silly sucking up to the Provincial Government.

“Today’s announcement is an important next step in the provincial government’s commitment to move the Highway 7 project forward,” said Berry Vrbanovic, Mayor of Kitchener”

I’d vote for life for a local politician that came to these photo ops and just bluntly said that it was nonsense that we are still at the announcing stage and the minister can take a hike until they’re ready to cut the ribbon on something actually built.

[Bytor]

And the announcement comes with the same silly sucking up to the Provincial Government.

“Today’s announcement is an important next step in the provincial government’s commitment to move the Highway 7 project forward,” said Berry Vrbanovic, Mayor of Kitchener”

I’d vote for life for a local politician that came to these photo ops and just bluntly said that it was nonsense that we are still at the announcing stage and the minister can take a hike until they’re ready to cut the ribbon on something actually built.

TBF, we know what happens when a relatively powerless municipal mayor criticizes the provincial government, however warranted it may be. :-(

[KevinL]

Is there any federal funding expected on this project? Will the environment minister's recent statements affect the project?

[Bjays93]

Maybe a highway shouldn’t be built but something needs to be done because what we have right now is both horribly unsafe and killing people and also a nightmare to drive. With the expansion of Breslau the existing road is insufficient, full stop.

Don’t build the highway, that’s fine. But it’s been what? 40 years of inaction?

[ac3r]

If the highway is unsafe and inefficient, why be opposed to a new one? A functional civilization still requires highways.