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Highway 401 Widening - Highway 8 to Townline Road
#76
IIRC, there's actually some in the depths of the Ion site? I can't remember where or why, but I do think that was the place I found them before.
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#77
Perhaps bus lanes for the ABRT portion?
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#78
I think I found it here, but I suspect these plans are out-of-date: http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/...bridge.pdf

Interestingly, it appears that the 401WB coming in to where Hwy 8 joins will have the left two lane end so that the two Hwy 8 lanes will continue without a merge. It's a strange choice over having the right-most lanes end instead, but I guess it allows three full lanes to continue through the merge coming from the 401. I generally don't like it when lanes end on the left though, as it often ends up with very rapid changes of speed and unsafe merges.

The reason it seems out-of-date: the plans only shown 6-lanes after Hwy 8 through Hespeler. Clearly there is widening going on in this section, so there will be some pretty major changes to the plans shown above, almost certainly addressing the issues with the merge from the left.
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#79
I think you're right these are out of date; didn't the MTO want to put HOV lanes in this stretch? Even though it seems kinda small for them? Or did I misread that?
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#80
The plans for Hespeler Road east to past 6 South have HOV lanes, so I imagine they would carry them west past 8 as well.
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#81
I thought it was like this:

EB: 3 lanes. 2 lanes sweeping in from 8 become lanes 4 and 5. Lane 5 splits off and becomes exit only at 24. Lane 4 becomes exit only for Franklin.

WB: 3 lanes. 4th lane gained at Franklin on ramp. 5th lane gained at 24. Lanes 4 and 5 become exit only and become 8. 3 leftmost lanes continue toward Woodstock.
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#82
http://highway401-hespeler-townline.ca/p...-overview/

I think Canard has it right
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#83
   

   
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#84
Man, I've now seen three different drawings showing three different things and none of them seem to coincide with Canard's description (which is what I had understood would be happening as well.)

Canard's drawing above seems to show that the Hwy 8 lanes will merge down to one lane before merging with the 401, which I thought they were going to be eliminating and seems to be worse than the situation prior to the widening. The HOV lane seems to start right at Hwy 8.

The drawing on the Hespeler-Townline widening EA seems to show that the HOV will start just prior to Hespeler (makes sense to allow traffic from 8 to use it immediately) and that 2 lanes will exit at Hespeler with 4+HOV continuing and 1 lane exiting at Franklin and Townline with 4+HOV continuing. The Franklin and Hespeler on/off-ramp lanes will be continuous between them as they presently are.

The drawing from the ROW Ion site is clearly out-of-date and irrelevant.

The plan from the EA site seems consistent with the MTO's desire to expand the 401 to ten lanes all the way through Milton and Mississauga, but I'm not entirely sure how staging would occur. It seems a bit unnecessary past Townline at this time, but perhaps they'll build it out through Cambridge to avoid having to reconstruct that section again ten or twenty years later.

My interest in the drawing was actually because I was curious if the alignment of the 401 will be shifted south slightly west of the Speed River. It seems that the land they've excavated on the north side of the 401 in that area won't provide as much space as they'll need for the additional lanes, bus shoulders etc. when compared with the width of the bridges they're building over the river. Perhaps the bridges are just extra wide?
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#85
When I look closely at the drawings I just posted, I fully agree, this doesn't make any sense either. The 2 lanes on 8 that sweep in heading EB toward Toronto will definitely become lane 4 and 5. To do any differently here would be completely pointless. The whole reason the flyover backs up is because of that compression merge.

Those drawings were sent to me by someone at the MTO when I asked a little while back for some official drawings of the plan. Though in the 2nd image his drawings seem to show the left shoulder on the flyover becoming a lane...?!
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#86
(12-17-2016, 01:09 PM)Canard Wrote: Though in the 2nd image his drawings seem to show the left shoulder on the flyover becoming a lane...?!

Haha, you're right! Who knows what's going on?! Hopefully the contractors are all working with the same plan!
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#87
A major project like this and no posts since December; I'm surprised.

They were painting lines on the new eastbound 401 lanes. Not sure when they plan to switch traffic over to them; can't wait to see how the 401/8 merge goes.
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#88
From the looks of it, the new on ramp and off ramp for Hespler Rd are mostly complete. They might open this year - we shall wait and see. I saw also high mast lighting poles near the highway 8 overpass. They have put maybe half a dozen poles in place and are now moving further east.
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#89
DHLawrence - I imagine once the switch happens, the merge will be the same configuration. The painted lanes on the new section are still only 3 wide, so it's not like we will see the utopia of the two lanes on the 8 WB ramp flowing straight into 401, like we will with the final configuration.

Those high mast lights are going to be amazing. I absolutely adore driving on highways at night with them - so much better!!
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#90
Mentioned it in a different thread, but the off-ramp from the 401 to 8N has been shortened with jersey barriers. Presumably they're starting work on extending that section further east now? It's been a while since I've seen any work being done on the north side of the highway in that area.
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