[nfitz]

Once the Highway 7 freeway from Kitchener to Guelph is done, it would then need to be extended to the 413, This could get it's own 400 series number. Since 407 is already taken what do we give it? 477?

Need? That plan died with the decision to go to the alternate option of widening the 401 again, from Cambridge to Milton.

I'm not sure why you'd give it a 400 number. They haven't done that with the section of 7 they converted to 400-series standards west of Ottawa. Or highway around Peterborough. Or Highway 8 in Kitchener. Or the bits of Highway 6 that are 400-series standards now.

I don't think the number makes much of a difference. But if you renumber new 7 from Guelph to Kitchener, I'd use that same number for the piece of 6 (Hanlon) from Woodlawn Road to Highway 401.

Of course, if they really want to fix things, once the province takes over the DVP/Gardiner, and it becomes a single highway with the new connection, they could simply rename the DVP, Gardiner, and QEW to 404.

 

[Steve X]

Need? That plan died with the decision to go to the alternate option of widening the 401 again, from Cambridge to Milton.

I'm not sure why you'd give it a 400 number. They haven't done that with the section of 7 they converted to 400-series standards west of Ottawa. Or highway around Peterborough. Or Highway 8 in Kitchener. Or the bits of Highway 6 that are 400-series standards now.

I don't think the number makes much of a difference. But if you renumber new 7 from Guelph to Kitchener, I'd use that same number for the piece of 6 (Hanlon) from Woodlawn Road to Highway 401.

Of course, if they really want to fix things, once the province takes over the DVP/Gardiner, and it becomes a single highway with the new connection, they could simply rename the DVP, Gardiner, and QEW to 404.

Instead of the 7/8/85, they could just give it a 400 series number even though it's not built to 400 series standard. 403 in Hamilton and 406 in St Catharines aren't either.

I do think a new number could be given to the new 7, Halton Expressway and eventually a 4 lane highway 6 from Morrison to Waterdown.

Realistically I do think the Freeport Diversion (highway 8) should be cosigned Highway 85 or renumbered 485. One can follow it to from the 401 to Waterloo. Highway 7 has lost its significance as no one follows it for intercity travels. It's either you use it or not. No one blindly follows "7" as a navigational tool. They could just keep it for GTA to Ottawa alternative highway. The western sections could be renumbered.

 

[Bojaxs]

MTO has the next two phases of the 400 extension starting in 2026/2027, a 12.2km extension of the 400 from the south and 20.4 km twinning of 69 from Hwy 529 southwards.

The QEW widening promised in the election campaign has an unspecified scope, I believe the language was "from Burlington to Niagara". The part of the QEW from Centennial Parkway in Stoney Creek to the 406 is fully built for 8 lanes and widening it to that would be very straightforward, I believe there is only a single structural modification required and a lot of that part of the highway is already paved for 8 lanes. Through St. Catharines would be tough with a lot of land requirements and it was just widened about 15 years ago anyway.. Not sure it's really going to happen. MTO does have long term plans to widen the Burlington Skyway, but I doubt those are coming any time soon. Personally I suspect that MTO will just extend the 8-lane part of the QEW to the 406 for now.

MTO is currently completing the EA for the 401 from Milton to Guelph - we will see if they follow through with funding. The delays to the Morriston Bypass make me think that MTO may do a massive design-build contract for the 401/Morriston Bypass from Cambridge to Milton, but there haven't been any official hints of that yet.

Officially MTO is supposed to start building the bridges over the Grand River for Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph this year.. I'm not sure they will follow through with that though.

A reminder of what MTO supposedly has the "green light" to proceed with construction:


Under Construction:
1. Highway 400 Widening Vaughan - Newmarket
2. St. Thomas Expressway upgrade
3. Highway 3 widening to Leamington
4. Highway 5/6 interchange in Waterdown
5. Highway 17 twinning Manitoba to Kenora
6. Highway 400 Widening

Construction of some sort identified in the 3-year highways program:

7. Bradford Bypass - west segment identified for start in 2026/2027
8. Highway 400 extension to Subury =- 32km of 68 remaining kms identified for start in 2026/2027
9. Highway 7 Kitchener - Guelph - Grand River Bridges identified for start in 2025
10. Highway 401 widening London to Tilbury - 20km from London westward identified for 2026
11. Garden City Skyway twinning - identified for start in 2026/2027

Projects "funded" without clear start dates:

11. 417 Extension to Renfrew
12. Morriston Bypass and 401 widening around the Bypass
13. 413 ("early works" have been identified as starting in 2025)
14. QEW widening "from Burlington to Niagara"
15. Highway 6 twinning to the Hamilton Airport
16. Highway 417 widening Ottawa

No plans to widen the QEW in Mississauga? Or the small N-S stretch of the 403 right on the Oakville/ Mississauga border?

That's the most congested spot for me on my daily commute to work.

 

[nfitz]

Instead of the 7/8/85, they could just give it a 400 series number even though it's not built to 400 series standard. 403 in Hamilton and 406 in St Catharines aren't either.

Ah, the Conestoga Parkway. Also once known as the 7-8 / 7 / 86. What a mess that is - they should have just given it a name. To complicate matters, they actually downloaded a bit of it north of Bridge Street (ack, ack - Country Squire Road) which is now Regional Road 85. Yeah, I think this is the one case where a completely new number could work.

I do think a new number could be given to the new 7, Halton Expressway and eventually a 4 lane highway 6 from Morrison to Waterdown.

That would have made sense with the earlier plan where new 6 (Halton) connected to old 6. Or have they changed the plan for the 4th time?

Realistically I do think the Freeport Diversion (highway 8) should be cosigned Highway 85 or renumbered 485.

That sounds even worse. It's Highway 8 plain and simple. It's about the only bit that isn't confusing! Though the lack of a ramp to the westbound 401 is increasingly absurd. That fell apart when they cancelled the Galt/Preston perimeter highway, that would have bridged the Grand River twice, been called Highway 8, and joined the existing highway south of Myers Road.

Freeport Diversion? Wow, I haven't heard anyone in KW call it that since sometime in the 1980s - and maybe that was just on historical maps! How old are you? Do people still call that area Freeport - there's not much left really, other than Freeport Bridge.

Seriously though - why just the "Freeport Diversion" instead of the rest of expressway from the 401 to the Conestoga?

Hang on a minute - just looking at a map. They've built a piece of "new 8" and named McQueen Shaver Blvd between Water and Franklin? Gosh, I had no idea ... I guess that's not going to be 400-series standards!

One can follow it to from the 401 to Waterloo.

Well you could - if you change roadways when you get to the Conestoga, instead of just continuing down King Street. Though it was simpler when it was all simply King Street, and the expressway turned into King Street at

Highway 7 has lost its significance as no one follows it for intercity travels. It's either you use it or not. No one blindly follows "7" as a navigational tool.

Few non-locals blindly follow anything these days except the the blip on the GIS. But certainly someone going from Guelph to Stratford simply goes on Highway 7. Though the number is pretty much redundant west of the Conestoga. The highway from Stratford to Highway 4 would be simpler to be something else now the 402 has been built. I'm not sure it even needs to be a provincial highway.

They could just keep it for GTA to Ottawa alternative highway. The western sections could be renumbered.'

Highway 7 is certainly very well known between Kitchener and the GTA, through Guelph, Acton, and into Brampton. It's the piece from the GTA to Peterborough that's all messed up road and alignment-wise. Port Perry, really? I remember before they invented the world-wide-web of hearing stories from friends driving from Ottawa to Kitchener, and ending up lost in Keswick.

Here's some classic Canadian signage!

 

[Fritter]

Since we are talking about 400 series numbering, does the MTO have a numbering convention process? It appears that several 400 series freeways took a 400+ whatever 2 lane highway it was built near, or replaced. (416, 417, 412, 407, 410, 427 etc) and others took some seemingly random number (418 I'm looking at you)
I suspect there is no such convention and numbering is assigned on an ad hoc basis

 

[innsertnamehere]

No plans to widen the QEW in Mississauga? Or the small N-S stretch of the 403 right on the Oakville/ Mississauga border?

That's the most congested spot for me on my daily commute to work.

MTO has plans for those, but they don't have the go-ahead.

MTO did the EA for widening the 403 through Oakville/Mississauga about 10 years ago, including the missing ramps to the QEW. They have rebuilt the interchange in anticipation of this widening too, but don't have an official go ahead from the minister to build it.

I do suspect that will be one of the next widening projects given the go-ahead, but it hasn't got it yet.

MTO does have longer term plans for the QEW through Mississauga as well to add an HOV lane, but hasn't completed the environmental assessment yet as far as I know and I suspect it is a longer range project. The current construction on that stretch of highway (Dixie interchange and Credit River bridge) should result in some pretty substantial improvements to operations though as they are adding auxiliary lanes in the worst pinch points on the highway.

 

[TransportEnthusiast]

There's literally Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) documentsfrom last century that do exactly that. Before they decided to keep the continuity of tolling. And that's when they made 403 and QEW share names from Oakville to the 403/407/QEW interchange.

Also do we need the same highway called 403 and 410? That's because 403 was to have continued along Eastgate to the 401/427 interchange. I can't remember if 410 was to have stopped at 403, or gone to the QEW.

Anyhow, I don't think changing the number would reduce congestion or speed travel times.

You misunderstood my point. 413 taking over the 407 along the pathway I highlighted would result in reduced tolls (maybe no tolls eventually?) and divert traffic off the currently congested QEW/403 portion.

 

[Dan416]

If the 407 in Halton/Peel got renumbered to 403/413 then you could use the 407 designation for the new highway 7 no? Maybe eventually connect them lol

 

[Morriston1986]

Would the potential widening of 401 from Cambridge to Milton and possibly Morriston bypass project built in be a decade long expansion or could they widen that within a decade and build the elaborate new section of hwy 6 that is needed.

With the bypass initially estimated at 500 million , would the 27km 401 expansion included 10 fold that number, 5+ billion

 

[anb]

Once the Highway 7 freeway from Kitchener to Guelph is done, it would then need to be extended to the 413, This could get it's own 400 series number. Since 407 is already taken what do we give it? 477?

408 would make better sense imo, as it would connect with Highway 8 in Kitchener to Stratford. Also as 408 is still an unused number in the 400 series highways, designating it to this road would allow a streak between the 400-410.

 

[innsertnamehere]

MTO is doing the 400 widening for $10 million a kilometre right now.

At that cost widening the 401 from Milton to Cambridge would be about $350 million.

What costs money in highways is land and structures. New highways are very expensive as they need a lot of both.

Widening highways can be surprisingly cheap, as you rarely need much land and often don’t need too many structures.

In the case of the 401, there are 6 structures which need replacement not including the Morriston bypass portion.. probably another $100 million for those or so.

So doing the entire 33km stretch of the 401 instead of just the highway 6 bypass would probably double the cost to around a billion.

The highway 6 bypass is expensive as MTO wants to do a full flyover interchange for the Hanlon and 401, then more flyovers for the Morriston Bypass and also needs a ton of new land to do it all. So it’s expensive.

 

[just east of the creek]

MTO has plans for those, but they don't have the go-ahead.

MTO did the EA for widening the 403 through Oakville/Mississauga about 10 years ago, including the missing ramps to the QEW. They have rebuilt the interchange in anticipation of this widening too, but don't have an official go ahead from the minister to build it.

I do suspect that will be one of the next widening projects given the go-ahead, but it hasn't got it yet.

MTO does have longer term plans for the QEW through Mississauga as well to add an HOV lane, but hasn't completed the environmental assessment yet as far as I know and I suspect it is a longer range project. The current construction on that stretch of highway (Dixie interchange and Credit River bridge) should result in some pretty substantial improvements to operations though as they are adding auxiliary lanes in the worst pinch points on the highway.

The QEW does not get the same amount of print when congestions is being written about. But there are ongoing congestion issues on this highway, seven days a week, both east bound and west bound, from the Humber River to past the Red Hill and extending to Niagara. The same for the 403 extending from the Freeman interchange westwards to Brantford.

Beyond expansion and the needed 'fixing' of the Freeman interchange, some of those longer terms solutions lie in (surprise, surprise) topics long discussed on UT - much faster, more frequent GO rail services into Hamilton and beyond (Niagara and Brantford), and a Dundas busway, fully separated from competing traffic, integrated dynamic tolling covering all GTA 400 series highways , and stronger (still) land use policies promoting and requiring varying levels of housing density, restricting sprawl, and perhaps re-zoning existing zoning to promote the former. (as an aside to that, i am all for immediate and automatic rezoning of any side-split or back-split single family dwelling property to something more functional The worst house design ever into a four or six plex walk up)

These topics are discussed constantly on these pages, but until there is a fully integrated master plan for transit and urban towns and cities, then doubling the size of the 401, adding lanes to the QEW, rebuilding the 400 (constantly) etc will only result in temporary apparent improvements to traffic flows within these sprawling urban areas where those same urban areas are designed with only one principle uppermost - access by car. We have been building highways since the 20's and 'super' highways since the end of the Second World War, and that is the one constant of highway building.

 

[ownthesky]

This is super nerdy, but for those interested in understanding the mathematics of congestion and traffic flow, the YouTube science channel Veritasium released a fantastic video on Braess’s Paradox yesterday that I found really mind bending:

The video introduces parallel vs series systems, beginning with a classic spring model, and then introduces the paradox: adding more paths to a network, a road network for example, can paradoxically increase travel times.

 

[Haljackey]

The QEW does not get the same amount of print when congestions is being written about. But there are ongoing congestion issues on this highway, seven days a week, both east bound and west bound, from the Humber River to past the Red Hill and extending to Niagara. The same for the 403 extending from the Freeman interchange westwards to Brantford.

Beyond expansion and the needed 'fixing' of the Freeman interchange, some of those longer terms solutions lie in (surprise, surprise) topics long discussed on UT - much faster, more frequent GO rail services into Hamilton and beyond (Niagara and Brantford), and a Dundas busway, fully separated from competing traffic, integrated dynamic tolling covering all GTA 400 series highways , and stronger (still) land use policies promoting and requiring varying levels of housing density, restricting sprawl, and perhaps re-zoning existing zoning to promote the former. (as an aside to that, i am all for immediate and automatic rezoning of any side-split or back-split single family dwelling property to something more functional The worst house design ever into a four or six plex walk up)

These topics are discussed constantly on these pages, but until there is a fully integrated master plan for transit and urban towns and cities, then doubling the size of the 401, adding lanes to the QEW, rebuilding the 400 (constantly) etc will only result in temporary apparent improvements to traffic flows within these sprawling urban areas where those same urban areas are designed with only one principle uppermost - access by car. We have been building highways since the 20's and 'super' highways since the end of the Second World War, and that is the one constant of highway building.

QEW congestion is discussed here but there just isn't much you can do to the road itself to fix that. Regular highway widening just isn't possible due to space constraints other than sticking in a aux lane or something for a new project like Dixie. I agree here its going to be much better for transit expansion since you have a lot of people going to the same area(s). Bloor Subway should get extended to Mississauga sometime and then you could get all the connecting bus routes and whatnot to terminate at Hurontario where they can subway into Toronto or take the Hurontario LRT. Doing whatever is possible to improve GO service would also be a win.

Approaching the Freeman interchange the QEW could really benefit from 3 lanes through that junction, especially Niagara bound. The Niagara bound QEW also frequently congests at the Red Hill since the QEW narrows to 3 lanes and then you have Red Hill and other local traffic merging in there too.

I'm hopeful the 401 widening between Cambridge and Milton can be one big accelerated project if Ford and Carney can work out a plan. Put the Highway 6 freeway on the back-burner as I think the 401 widening is more needed. Just rough in the stuff to make that a reality once the widening is complete.

 

[mtomo]

Maple Travel Plaza off of the 400 Southbound lanes, North of Teston Road. Now shutdown and being demolished, in its place will be a modernized Enroute.


View attachment 655592

They should build the new one further north, it doesn't make sense to have an Onroute in Vaughan