General Road and Highway Discussion

[creative]

I live in Rosemount and use Manchester road to bypass most of the construction on Ottawa. Easy access to the expressway from there as well.

[jamincan]

I live in Rosemount and use Manchester road to bypass most of the construction on Ottawa. Easy access to the expressway from there as well.

I actually do as well, but I think a lot of people are cluing in to that option now as I noticed quite a long backup at Manchester and Nottingham the last time I went through there.

[timc]

On the subject of roundabouts, I have been pleased with the new ones that were installed on Lake Louise Boulevard in Waterloo. I have cycled through there a few times since they were finished, and I think the design is really bike friendly. Unlike most roundabouts, these ones don't try to divert bikes off the road, and the placement of the circle in the middle is such that you can actually ride straight through without having to turn at all. It's a nice ride, except for the speed humps that have been installed all the way across the road.

[embe]

I live east of the expressway, and they've basically cut off this part of the city. Victoria and Krug are closed completely, and half of Ottawa is torn up between the expressway and River, which means the only way to reach downtown is via Frederick or the other half of Ottawa, which  have been bumper to bumper the last few times I've taken them. I've been out of town for the last three weeks, so I might have just been unlucky, but the number of lanes across the expressway has essentially dropped to four from twelve. Do they not plan this construction out at all in advance? To make matters even worse, the access to the expressway at Bruce and Edna is closed to/from the north as well.

Does anyone have any sense on timelines for these projects?

Small consolation, but you're not alone in your questions and comments  .  

As someone else pointed out the Victoria closure is on weekends, although from what I've seen it's still a bottleneck (reduced lanes) week-long.  My understanding is most of the current road/ramp closures in this area will open by the end of October.

I'm hoping a better plan is in place for when (by some reports) the Victoria bridge is closed completely for construction, as you can imagine what impact this will have to traffic levels on Frederick, Ottawa (and maybe Wellington) overpasses.

[Pheidippides]

I've seen this coming for weeks...some of the work in Uptown is being pushed to 2018:
"new timeline for road work between Erb and Bridgeport went from 14 weeks to 24.5 weeks. She said nearly 25 per cent of the project is now being deferred until 2018."

Was it all the rain that slowed things so much?

[KevinT]

I'm hoping a better plan is in place for when (by some reports) the Victoria bridge is closed completely for construction, as you can imagine what impact this will have to traffic levels  on Frederick, Ottawa (and maybe Wellington) overpasses.

Ideally the Bruce connector to Wellington could be pushed under the tracks first, but I suspect that's not how it's going to happen. Probably for some reason that would be obvious to me if I re-looked at the plans posted near the beginning of this thread, but ignorance is bliss... :-)

[Viewfromthe42]

I've seen this coming for weeks...some of the work in Uptown is being pushed to 2018:
"new timeline for road work between Erb and Bridgeport went from 14 weeks to 24.5 weeks. She said nearly 25 per cent of the project is now being deferred until 2018."

Was it all the rain that slowed things so much?

It wouldn't surprise me if the rain slowed it a good deal, but how much of the delays relate to that I don't know. I do believe this was also an instance of work (pipes) that could have been done in one big go with the same work being done on ION, but where businesses said it would be much better to spread out the pain, and now they are getting the consequences of that.

It really wouldn't surprise me to see with global warming (increased water temperatures causing more evaporation, increased air temperatures keeping evaporation longer, increased air temperatures causing humid air to blow farther) cause statistically higher precipitations in a lot of places around the globe, with construction cost and delay increases a logical result of this.

[Markster]

It wouldn't surprise me if the rain slowed it a good deal, but how much of the delays relate to that I don't know. I do believe this was also an instance of work (pipes) that could have been done in one big go with the same work being done on ION, but where businesses said it would be much better to spread out the pain, and now they are getting the consequences of that.

Doing the work at the same time as ION wasn't really ever on the table. The approvals for the plan only came in in time to start this year. It was actually the BIA's decision to not wait until 2018, and to get shovels in the ground immediately.

[Canard]

I thought it 100% was the plan all along, and exactly as was said, it was be business owners who said "no, spread it out". So that's not the case?

What did they mean then when they said that Kig St. Work North of the tracks was removed from the scope of ION works?

[Viewfromthe42]

You could both be right: they could have said they wanted to remove North-of-tracks work from the scope of ION work to spread out the pain, and so the new, reduced, North-of-tracks approval only came together in time to start this year?

[Canard]

Has anyone been through Fountain St. South, between Shantz Hill Road and King St. West* recently?

Is it passable by bikes and pedestrians?

I used to bike this way to work but have avoided it the past few weeks once they switched which side of the road they working on. It seemed to make things far more difficult to get through (coming from Conestoga way - over the new bridge they're building/decommissioning the old one).

* - I always have to use Google Maps to get road names for anything we discuss here, because I'm still so baffled by what's what in the Region. Imagine my surprise that King St. in this short section is "King St. W" between Fountain and Riverside Park... then changed to King St. E. Why?!?!?!

[ijmorlan]

* - I always have to use Google Maps to get road names for anything we discuss here, because I'm still so baffled by what's what in the Region. Imagine my surprise that King St. in this short section is "King St. W" between Fountain and Riverside Park... then changed to King St. E. Why?!?!?!

Could it be “King St. W, Cambridge” and “King St. E, Kitchener”?

If so, that extends the weirdness of King St., which is in order N, S, W, E to actually be N, S, W, E, W, E. Actually the part north of the City of Waterloo is probably just “King St.” so presumably there is another change there.

Really it would be better if it switched between N and S at the K-W border, but a renumbering of every address on the street would be needed, and it would make Kitchener even weirder, with N-S roads crossing over King S. at a right-angle intersection, and E-W roads running parallel to it.

[Canard]

SCREAM

[panamaniac]

I find the wonky road directions to be an endearing local eccentricity. My personal favourite is the way Erb St W, Victoria St S, Highland Rd W, and Ottawa St S run parallel to each other between Fischer-Hallman and Ira Needles.

[timc]

Really it would be better if it switched between N and S at the K-W border, but a renumbering of every address on the street would be needed, and it would make Kitchener even weirder, with N-S roads crossing over King S. at a right-angle intersection, and E-W roads running parallel to it.

If we're going to rename things, then King Street East should be renamed to Weber Street East past the Highway 8 onramp. And that silly little stub of King Street East behind there should be named something else (King's Court or something). Then King Street would end at the expressway.