12-17-2016, 12:36 PM
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The drawing from the ROW Ion site is clearly out-of-date and irrelevant.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?
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The drawing from the ROW Ion site is clearly out-of-date and irrelevant.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?