Waterloo Region Connected
General Road and Highway Discussion - Printable Version

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RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - dtkvictim - 12-24-2021

"Cycling advocate brings his vision for Frederick Street to Waterloo Region council"

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2021/12/24/cycling-advocate-brings-his-vision-for-frederick-street-to-waterloo-region-council.html

Great work, Dan.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - bravado - 01-31-2022

Forgive me if this question is a bit too broad:

I've been reading (doomscrolling?) a bit too much about the increased lifetime costs of low density infrastructure and how it's appearing in the US more over time. I've done my best amateur attempt at reading the Region and City of Cambridge's official plans and updates to see if it applies here and whether or not we've budgeted for it, but I find it difficult to parse the information.

Is Waterloo Region generally prepared for future road costs, or does this same "rule" in the US also apply here? Does the Region effectively manage the lifespans of our roads and bridges and does Council bite the bullet and provide funds for it (generally)?


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - plam - 01-31-2022

(01-31-2022, 06:30 PM)bravado Wrote: Forgive me if this question is a bit too broad:

I've been reading (doomscrolling?) a bit too much about the increased lifetime costs of low density infrastructure and how it's appearing in the US more over time. I've done my best amateur attempt at reading the Region and City of Cambridge's official plans and updates to see if it applies here and whether or not we've budgeted for it, but I find it difficult to parse the information.

Is Waterloo Region generally prepared for future road costs, or does this same "rule" in the US also apply here? Does the Region effectively manage the lifespans of our roads and bridges and does Council bite the bullet and provide funds for it (generally)?

Roads, sewers, etc. That was part of the reasoning behind densification & LRT construction, though I'm not sure exactly how ready the various governments are to pay for it.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - nms - 01-31-2022

The short answer is: they do their best with what they have.  To pick one City, the City of Waterloo has a 25-year rolling asset management plan (PDF) that is reviewed every 4-5 years. This is regulated by the Province of Ontario. Currently, based on the City's annual funding plan, only about half of the projects for the next 25-years will be funded at the end of that 25-year period. As is common, the funding gap is often covered by higher levels of government, or in some rare cases fundraising campaigns for big things like recreation centres (Note: "Assets" includes everything from Transportation to Cemeteries and IT)

There are also multiple levels of road maintenance depending on the need:
- patching: for a small pot hole when the rest of the road is okay
- resurface and repair: scrape off the top layer and lay down fresh
- reconstruction: go down 6-8' and start all over again with all of the below ground services (more typically in the older areas, often when the underground services have had one too many water main breaks)


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 02-01-2022

I have no idea what things will look like going forward, I do know that the 'Accelerated Infrastructure Replacement Program' or whatever they're calling it these days, was as a result of taxes (and importantly fees for water and sewer) being too low to pay for infrastructure replacement, so all the infra from the 60s and 70s that was coming due for replacement couldn't be funded.

It's incredibly frustrating the amount of anger and yelling from older residents who have seen below cost water supply for the past 50 years who are angry that the price is shooting up right now, who haven't bothered to understand why, who have been the direct beneficiaries of this underinvestment...it's just frustrating.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - Bytor - 02-01-2022

Has the roundabout at Margaret and Union ever been reconstructed? There's somebody on reddit claiming that, but AFAIK it's always been that low, easily mountable red dot that the busses go over all the time and it's been like that since at least 2009 when I moved back to Kitchener from Cambridge.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - Chris - 02-01-2022

(02-01-2022, 01:57 PM)Bytor Wrote: Has the roundabout at Margaret and Union ever been reconstructed? There's somebody on reddit claiming that, but AFAIK it's always been that low, easily mountable red dot that the busses go over all the time and it's been like that since at least 2009 when I moved back to Kitchener from Cambridge.


I'm pretty sure it was designed that way from the start because it was so small.

Also. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4674602,-80.4997376,3a,75y,157.36h,78.14t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqS9FeLZIEUg54Q2ASG8W7A!2e0!5s20090401T000000!7i13312!8i6656

Unfortunately it only goes back to 2009.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - Bob_McBob - 02-01-2022

AFAIK that roundabout has never been reconstructed. This is 2009 vs. 2020.

[Image: QpC5kED.gif]


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - tomh009 - 02-01-2022

Not common here (yet) but not unusual elsewhere.

[Image: 61d62a2b2b1ff.image.jpg]


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 02-02-2022

Interesting indeed, although I think the ped crossings need a bit of work, I understand why they are where they are, but they shouldn't be. Given the context of the intersection, they are placed far far too far back, and create too significant a detour for peds.

But this kind of intersection could replace basically all of our four way stops, and wouldn't require any extra land I don't think.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - jamincan - 02-02-2022

Especially since they like to design minor roads with wide curves meant for transport trucks.


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - cherrypark - 03-10-2022

Another highway proposed between the 401 and 403 from Cambridge to Brantford area (maybe old; I don't remember seeing it before?) in the depressingly bad transportation plan from the MTO.

https://files.ontario.ca/mto-ggh-transportation-plan-en-2022-03-10.pdf

   


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - danbrotherston - 03-10-2022

Man that is depressing.

No transit aspirations at all...just more cars...our province is doomed...


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - timio - 03-10-2022

Wasn't that the 424 proposal from many years ago?


RE: General Road and Highway Discussion - ijmorlan - 03-10-2022

(03-10-2022, 03:24 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Man that is depressing.

No transit aspirations at all...just more cars...our province is doomed...

The whole report does have transit improvements. That map is just the road improvements map.

That being said, part of the problem is treating roads and transit as separate competing interests, rather than complementary parts of a single transportation system.

That being said, we don’t need most of those road improvements. I would only do minor projects to fill in anomalous gaps and optimize interchanges, not build any major new superhighways.