Waterloo Region Connected

All the curbs and concrete for street parking are in for the King St uptown rework. Looks like they might give this some asphalt to open it up to vehicle traffic within the next week before finishing off the sidewalks and bike lanes

(07-22-2019, 12:55 PM)GtwoK Wrote: [ -> ]All the curbs and concrete for street parking are in for the King St uptown rework. Looks like they might give this some asphalt to open it up to vehicle traffic within the next week before finishing off the sidewalks and bike lanes

*sigh*...in uptown, the priority should be on sidewalks.

Absolutely, but in terms of a time-benefit comparison, it make sense what they did. Laying asphalt to reopen to vehicle traffic is a quick way to eliminate some of the congestion, while finishing tree root planters in order to pave with concrete, etc, would take much longer, and you'd have to wait until thats done to paver the roads, thereby delaying ANY relief of congestion.

It's ironic that a rework meant to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists is finishing the vehicle component first, but in the end some congestion relief is better than none.

(07-22-2019, 02:30 PM)GtwoK Wrote: [ -> ]Absolutely, but in terms of a time-benefit comparison, it make sense what they did. Laying asphalt to reopen to vehicle traffic is a quick way to eliminate some of the congestion, while finishing tree root planters in order to pave with concrete, etc, would take much longer, and you'd have to wait until thats done to paver the roads, thereby delaying ANY relief of congestion.

It's ironic that a rework meant to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists is finishing the vehicle component first, but in the end some congestion relief is better than none.

I'd also say that running the traffic on Regina makes it somewhat stressful to cross Regina on my bike. Worse than crossing King for sure.

Noticed there's a recent info sheet about a full reconstruction of King St in the Sportsworld area to add an MUT as well as make accommodations for Ion Stage 2

The section of King near the 401 lists "HWY 401 upgrades in 2020". What is this? I figured this would've been public by now, are they finally adding the remaining HWY 8 -> HWY 401 interchange ramps in?

EDIT: ah, nevermind:

Quote:The MTO is currently planning the following work on Highway 401 in the vicinity of King Street;
• Replacement and widening of Highway 401 at Grand River bridge to accommodate 6 westbound lanes and 4 eastbound lanes
• Rehabilitation and widening of Highway 401 at King Street overpass structure
• Ramp modifications to the westbound Highway 401 to northbound King Street off-ramp
This work is expected to start in 2019 and take three to four years to be completed. Regional staff are working with MTO to determine the optimal timing and phasing of these projects to minimize adverse impacts on traffic and property access to the greatest extent possible.

Also, numerous instances of "traffic signal modernization"; what does that mean?



Another interesting thing to note in here: the location of the LRT platforms! I had just assumed they'd be at Sportsworld Drive, but it seems like they'll be split on either side of the Sportsworld Crossing intersection, which  I suppose make more sense, given that's where more destinations might be. Too bad about the distance from Costco though.

The 401 is a full reconstruction of the grand river bridges, high mast lighting and other general rehab. Interchange ramps aren't changing but the reconstruction will leave the grand bridges for future potential ramps. Its a two year project.

There's 1.2 km between Gateway Park Dr, and Sportsworld Crossing.

Probably there could be a stop at both, but honestly, this area is so incredibly unwalkable. Sportsworld crossing is really difficult to get to from the Park and Ride.

(07-22-2019, 12:55 PM)GtwoK Wrote: [ -> ]All the curbs and concrete for street parking are in for the King St uptown rework. Looks like they might give this some asphalt to open it up to vehicle traffic within the next week before finishing off the sidewalks and bike lanes

Seems I was right — King St being paved right now!

Quote:Also, numerous instances of "traffic signal modernization"; what does that mean?

Presumably the existing signals are on an older generation of control hardware, which needs to be brought up to date.

(07-22-2019, 06:41 PM)KevinL Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:Also, numerous instances of "traffic signal modernization"; what does that mean?

Presumably the existing signals are on an older generation of control hardware, which needs to be brought up to date.

I'd guess newer traffic signals are also easier to synchronize.

Over the past year, I've been considering potential redesign of the Expressway and 8 interchange, notably for N->W and E->S (pretend it's rotated about 45 degrees) to limit the risk of dangerous weaving and collision during rush hours.

The easier possibility is for the E->S ramps by dropping King St to a single lane that continues onto the highway and 2-laning the offramp. During the morning rush, traffic can be at a standstill through Homer Watson, and worse if there's congestion downstream.

The N->W ramp is a mess, leftover from the original cloverleaf. The flyover cleaned up the interchange quite substantially, but I've seen cars backed up through Fairway trying to head towards Stratford. I'm curious if there's a way to utilize the former onramp space to make a 90 degree onramp curving left instead of a 270 degree onramp curving right. It's a tight space to work in, limiting potential, so who knows if it could even be improved, but the sort of thing I think about when stuck in the same lineup on a regular basis.

Honestly, probably the best thing they could do is separate the right-most lanes exiting onto the Parkway east/northbound from the left-most lanes to King/westbound parkway. I drive through there all the time, and notice two things: people jumping in from the right at the last minute (causing a cascade of braking behind them and slowing down the whole lane) or truckers at a crawl leaving absolutely massive amounts of space ahead of them in anticipation of the previously mentioned people jumping ahead. Neither behaviour is helpful for smooth, high volume movement at the exit. This separation would have to go quite far back all the way to the Weber exit, but I think it would still be worthwhile and make the whole section safer and run more smoothly.

(07-24-2019, 08:59 AM)jamincan Wrote: [ -> ]Honestly, probably the best thing they could do is separate the right-most lanes exiting onto the Parkway east/northbound from the left-most lanes to King/westbound parkway. I drive through there all the time, and notice two things: people jumping in from the right at the last minute (causing a cascade of braking behind them and slowing down the whole lane) or truckers at a crawl leaving absolutely massive amounts of space ahead of them in anticipation of the previously mentioned people jumping ahead. Neither behaviour is helpful for smooth, high volume movement at the exit. This separation would have to go quite far back all the way to the Weber exit, but I think it would still be worthwhile and make the whole section safer and run more smoothly.

This would make sense. Even installing plastic bollards on either side of the Stratford-bound exit lane would stop this behaviour with no substantial construction costs required. People force their way into the Stratford-bound lane from both sides, and just securing one side would just move the lane-jumpers to the other side.

(07-23-2019, 10:33 PM)timio Wrote: [ -> ]The easier possibility is for the E->S ramps by dropping King St to a single lane that continues onto the highway and 2-laning the offramp.  During the morning rush, traffic can be at a standstill through Homer Watson, and worse if there's congestion downstream.

King St. is only two lanes anyway, starting less than 500m north of the intersection with Dixon/Montgomery immediately north of the interchange, and continuing all the way up past Uptown. So reducing that remaining half kilometre to two lanes would be a very sensible thing to do.

In general I’m opposed to freeway widening unless it’s on a full cost-recovery basis, but to deal with bottlenecks it sometimes makes sense. In this case, I imagine 2 lanes from the flyover, 1 from King, and 2 from the west coming together to form 5 (rather than the existing 4) lanes, which could then continue to where the 5th lane is currently introduced ahead of the Fairway exit. At that exit the 5 lanes could split into 4 lanes continuing and 2 exiting onto Fairway as they do now. This would involve approximately 1.2km of a single additional lane but should help significantly to equalize use of the roadway.

Is there room for a fifth lane under the bridge? I'm thinking this would require another underpass rebuild.