HawthorneVillager.com

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.

I love how they need to make James Snow Parkway 4 lanes instead of 2 when the 2 lanes arent even opened yet. Theres some foresight for you. Are they going to open James Snow for 6 months and then close it again to make it 4 lanes? Wouldnt it have been easier and cheaper just to make it 4 lanes in the first place? You had all the equipment there and once every 2 weeks a couple of guys would show up and do something.

Actually they are building parts of Louis St Laurent right now. Why wouldnt they just make them 4 lanes now also.

$$$. Complicated infastructure like the bridge over 16 mile creek are 4 lane, so only done once. If your 4 lane widening is done a number of years after the initial road is put it it's cheaper to do the added lanes later. Just look at 407 for that example. Not uncommon to see that elsewhere because it defers costs over time, and when you're only talking roadbed you don't have to close the road to put in the extra 2 lanes. LSL has been in place as a 2 lane feeder road east of Thompson for a number of years now. Widening it doesn't really need to happen until the water and sewer is in place for Boyne development so you defer the cost until closer to the time it's actually required. At least this time they're doing it so it will be in place before Boyne actually starts house construction . 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.

Huh?????
It took a study to figure out that Milton is growing.
I no longer believe these guys are capable of planning for the future.
They are talking 20 years away. What about the next 2????

They have done a poor job of planning for the last 5 years of growth (about 25K people) How are they going to be able to handle the jump from 80K to 240K?

It has taken 1.5 years to do half of the job widening Derry which is 1 KM long. They have to start next week if they want everything done on their wish list in 20 years.

I have lost all confidence that they are equipped for the job. I hope they prove me wrong....

Ugh. This is why I need to get out of Milton ASAP.

While this would make logical sense, I'm not sure that they actually did it that way? It's been awhile since I've had a look but the last time I was over there, it appeared that they had only planned for 2 lanes on the south side of the median and what looked like a single lane width north of the median for pedestrian/bicycle traffic? My guess is that they're holding off on construction of the bridge for the second set of lanes until they widen LSL to 4 lanes as part of the Boyne survey.

Really? It looked wider than 2 lanes to me, but maybe it was just the visual illusion. It's hard to see at this point. I wonder if there's the abutment structure for the other 2 lanes? You can do it a few different ways to minimize how much work is needed to put in 2 lanes later. When they did the bridge on LSL between 4th line and Trudeau, it was built with the full 4 lanes. Smaller bridge though.