Wider roads, increased GO Transit service and possibly a new highway connecting Milton to north Vaughan were some of the options presented during a recent transportation meeting regarding the future of Milton’s roadways.
“The next phase of growth for the community is to expand to the east, south and southwest, pushing the urban boundary’s existing limits,” said Paul Cripps, the Town’s director of engineering, adding that by 2031 it’s expected that Milton will be built-out with approximately 240,000 residents.
“There’s a lot of roadway building that’s the backbone of our transportation network.”
Cripps was one of three speakers at the breakfast event, hosted by the Milton Chamber of Commerce. Jin Wang, manager of the GTA West Corridor Study, and Tim Dennis, the Region’s director of transportation, also spoke about managing the roadway in Canada’s fastest growing community.
Pointing to the Boyne survey, a 2,300-acre plot south of Louis St. Laurent Avenue, Cripps said the future development would see a high population density of 50,000 people. Milton’s previous urban developments, the Bristol and Sherwood surveys, each saw about 30,000 people.
With the anticipated growth of the Boyne neighbourhood, Cripps said Louis St. Laurent Avenue will eventually be widened to four lanes. To additionally support the new survey, the Town plans to widen Bronte Street from Louis St. Laurent Avenue to Britannia Road.
Projects expected to be completed in 2011 include the realignment of Main Street from Bronte Street to Tremaine Road and the construction of a roundabout and connector road from the new intersection with Tremaine and No. 14 Sideroad. Cripps also said the stretch of Louis St. Laurent Avenue from Bronte Street to Regional Road 25 should be paved by early next year.
Part of Cripps’s presentation was a video simulation of a reconstructed Main Street including the CN Railway overpass. Tender for the $32-million project is expected to be completed by early 2011 with construction expected to continue until 2013.
Future construction plans include the extension of Main Street from James Snow Parkway to Trafalgar Road, and Cripps said he anticipates the construction of a new GO Station at the 401 Business Park.
When asked if Milton or Halton Region have any plans for a subway or high-speed transit system, Cripps pointed to Metrolinx, a government agency aimed at improving transportation flow throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.
“They’re talking about expanding (GO Transit’s) Lakeshore line. I anticipate GO will move to that kind of service throughout its whole network.”
At the Regional level, Dennis said Halton is responsible with planning about $1 billion worth of roads.
Most of the future road improvements (2011-2016) in Milton involve road widening from two to four lanes. Lumped in this category are James Snow Parkway, Tremaine and Britannia roads, Regional Road 25 and Steeles Avenue.
“In total about $300 million in road work will be undertaken in (Milton) on regional roads in the next five to six years,” said Dennis.
He said the region is constantly balancing the economic, social and environmental needs of the community. “We want to support an active and healthy lifestyle by providing a transportation system that promotes walking and cycling and supports transit,” he said.
Dennis explained the Region is in the process of completing the transportation master plan, which should be finalized by spring 2011.
“Although infrastructure is required, it also creates a lot of challenges in terms of the construction activity that takes place. While we’re making the roads better we must continue to move traffic.”
Dennis said using social media such as Twitter is one option the Region is looking at to provide real-time updates on road closures, as well as using signage, public notices and advertising.
Ministry of Transportation representative Jin Wang discussed four major projects the Province is involved in that can help alleviate some of Milton’s gridlock.
These include the Hwy. 401 widening, the Tremaine Road interchange, the GO Transit expansion initiative that will expand full-day service from Milton to Union Station, and the GTA West Corridor Study, which Wang is managing.
The study has identified a route for a four-lane road running from Hwy. 401 in Milton through Halton Hills and north Peel region to Hwy. 427. The road would be six lanes from Hwy. 427 to Hwy. 400 in north Vaughan, where it ends.
“When we started the process we were not thinking of putting up a highway. We were really looking at the transportation system, looking at all alternatives to address transportation problems,” said Wang.
He said the first goal of the study was to optimize current transportation systems, “without introducing any (ecological) footprint on the environment.”
This includes expanding non-road infrastructure and building on Metrolinx’s ‘The Big Move’ transit plan, which calls for electrified GO Transit trains on the Lakeshore West corridor and all-day, two-way train service to Georgetown and Milton.
“Milton is a good example of future growth,” he said, explaining that the Golden Horseshoe will see its population grow by about three million, with one million new jobs coming to the area by 2031.
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. Same thing with James Snow. The portion of it from LSL to Derry is 2 lane and has been open for a number of years. The section from LSL to Britannia was supposed to have been done a bit earlier, but they'll widen the entire section from Derry to Britannia to 4 lanes and do it all at once.