Updated January 31, 2007

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Info on Alternatives: Summary of Current Alternatives Being Studied

The following is a brief summary of the biggest changes to the Queensway under consideration. For more details about these and other proposed changes, people are encouraged to check the MTO's site or see the executive summary on the MTO site and/or the full TESR report details at www.417ea-tesr.com.

There are two types of changes proposed for highway 417 between the 416 interchange and Anderson road. The first type is widening of the mainline highway itself and the second type is modifications to ramps (exit and on).

Mainline widening proposals:

• There will be no widening of the Queensway downtown between Metcalfe and Island Park.
• There will be one additional lane added on both sides east of Metcalfe.
• There will be one additional lane added on both sides west of Island Park.

These widenings remain the most objectionable aspects of the recommendations because costs will be very high (well over $100 million), the benefits marginal and negative impacts severe. The money spent on these widenings would be better spent on east-west light rail where just single track could carry the same number of people as 7 lanes of highway. Spending all that money on roads and not on transit, cycling or walking will contribute to more car related problems (pollution, congestion, noise, green house gases, ...).

Major Ramp modifications proposals:

• Both eastbound onramps at Richmond Road will be closed and replaced by an eastbound onramp off Holly Acres.
• Changing the Woodroffe westbound on and off ramps to be similar to the Maitland configuration (i.e. there will be no more flow-through offramps north or south).
• Realignment of the westbound Parkdale offramp on the properties now occupied by about 20 homes on the south side of Westmount. Westmount Avenue would keep the homes on the north side and would no longer be an off ramp.
• Closure of the westbound Lyon onramp for most of the day, except during the evening rush hour.
• Removal of the building on the east side of Bronson (just south of the Queensway) to allow the Bronson eastbound offramp to line up with a realigned Chaimberlain Avenue. No left turns will be allowed onto Chaimberlain from Bronson which means cars will have to continue to turn left onto Imperial and then merge onto Chaimberlain.
• Moving the eastbound Lees Avenue offramp to be in line with Chestnut.
• Close westbound offramp at St Laurent and replace with westbound offramp at Aviation Parkway.
• Close eastbound onramp from northbound St Laurent.

There will also be more minor changes to ramps such as Pinecrest, Parkdale, Catherine and Nicholas to accommodate widening and/or make curves a bit less tight. Those changes that are purely to accommodate widening are part of the waste if the mainline widening does ahead. The more significant ramp modifications that are driven primarily for safety and not to accommodate a wider Queensway are not as objectionable. Care must be taken to ensure the most cost effective measures will be taken to improve safety.