What's on tap for traffic relief in Vaughan?
Widening of Major Mackenzie Drive biggest project at regional level

YorkRegion.com
Jan. 28, 2016
Adam Martin-Robbins  

Vaughan drivers fed up with idling in traffic for hours might see some relief from the city’s crippling traffic congestion over the next few years as several major road expansion and transit projects really get rolling.

The Region of York is spearheading a number of those projects.

“We’re certainly aware that congestion is the main concern, and has been for quite some time now, and we’ve heard that from the residents in the region as well as residents within Vaughan,” said Paul Acquaah, York Region’s manager of engineering and transportation services.

“(Regional) council has, actually, made it a priority to deal with the matter of transportation congestion and has invested more money in these projects, more so than any previous term of council.”

The Region’s biggest road expansion project in Vaughan is the widening of Major Mackenzie Drive to six lanes, from four lanes, between Hwy. 400 and Hwy. 50.

As with all six-lane regional roads, the outermost lanes will be for high-occupancy vehicles (HOV) and transit, Acquaah said.

Work is already underway along the stretch between Pine Valley Drive and Weston Road.

That will continue this year while work between Weston Road and Hwy. 400 begins “in earnest this year,” Acquaah said.

The region also plans to start preparatory work – such as moving utilities - on the stretch between Pine Valley Drive and Hwy. 27.

This year will also see the completion of road design and moving of utilities between Hwy. 27 and the CP rail tracks, near Huntington Road.

It’s anticipated construction along that stretch will start this summer.

The final section, from the railway tracks west to Hwy. 50, is being coordinated to open in conjunction with opening of Hwy. 427 extension, Acquaah said.

Regional officials also expect to complete design work and start moving utilities along Keele Street, between Steeles Avenue and Hwy. 407, in preparation for widening that stretch to six lanes from four lanes. Construction is slated to begin in 2017.

The widening of Bathurst Street to six lanes, between Hwy. 407 and Elgin Mills Road, is in the detailed design phase with construction to start 2021.

Another York Region initiative aimed at easing congestion is traffic signal optimization, which looks at areas where lights can be synchronized to help improve traffic flow.

This year, the region plans to review traffic signals along three roads – Islington, between from Major Mackenzie Drive and Hwy. 7, Centre Street, from Bathurst Street to Dufferin Street, and Pine Valley Drive, between Langstaff Road and Hwy. 407. 

The region is also gearing up for a number of studies, mostly environmental assessments, to lay the groundwork for future widening or expansions of Rutherford Road and Teston Road as well as the stretch of Langstaff Road from Weston Road to east of Dufferin Street then down to Hwy. 7 including a crossing of the CN rail yard.

Beyond road widening, the region is moving to get bus rapid transit up and running along Hwy. 7.

The first phase of the so-called vivaNext rapidway runs 3.6 kilometres from Edgeley Boulevard to Bowes Road and includes three stations.

There will be “significant paving activity” this year along the section from Jane Street to Bowes Road in preparation for opening at the end of 2016, said Dale Albers, York Region Transit’s chief communications officer.

The section of Hwy. 7 west of Jane is being coordinated with the opening of the Spadina Subway extension.

The second phase includes 10 stations along a 12-kilometre stretch from west of Edgeley Boulevard to Helen Street and from Bowes Road east to Yonge Street.

Heavy construction along that section is to slated to begin in 2016 and be completed in 2020, Albers said.

The rapidway is meant, in part, to help connect commuters to the Spadina subway extension, which was originally slated to open in 2016, but was then delayed by a year.

TTC officials announced two weeks ago that the 8.6 kilometres extension, which will add six stations between Downsview Station north and the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, is facing a potential $400 million cost overrun. But that’s not expected to affect the 2017 completion date.

According to a report released by the TTC, the new stations are more than 80 per cent complete, with the exception of the York University station, which is only 63 per cent complete.

In a recent interview, project manager Keith Sibley said the goal for 2016 is to complete the electrical and mechanical systems “that turn a bunch of empty buildings and tunnels into a railway.”

“As we start 2016, we’re closed in, heated and protected and we’re working on systems and finishes,” he said. “Our focus, for 2016, is to get a lot of the interior finishes, such as ceramic tile and porcelain panels, drop ceilings and terrazzo flooring installed.”

Track work is also expected to be completed within the first quarter of this year.

By the first half of 2017, TTC plans to begin running test vehicles. The next step, after that, is to have trains rolling down the tracks “at the required operational frequency to confirm that the systems all work,” Sibley said.

All that is expected to be done in time for the opening at the end of 2017.

“We have a plan. We’re working with all our contractor partners to work that plan,” Sibley said. “It’s one thing to have a plan and the other thing is to execute to the plan. We’re working hard to manage ourselves to that plan.”

Another major road expansion project that, earlier last year, was hoped might get started by this fall is the Hwy. 427 extension from Zenway Boulevard to Major Mackenzie Drive.

But Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca, who serves as MPP for Vaughan, said it now appears “most likely that actual construction on the Hwy. 427 widening and extension will start in 2017.”

The extension will be six lanes between Hwy. 7 and Rutherford Road, narrowing to four lanes between Rutherford and Major Mackenzie Drive.

As part of the project, the section between Hwy. 7 and just south of Albion Road is to be widened to eight lanes. 

The extension is slated to open in 2020 and will feature the province’s first high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes from south of Hwy. 409 to north of Rutherford Road, starting in 2021.

In addition to the Hwy. 427 extension, Del Duca noted, plans are in the works to beef up service on the Barrie GO train line in the near future.

“I’m expecting to have an update, probably in the spring, about what additional incremental service we can see both on mid-day, off-peak, weekend and weeknight service over the next couple of years,” he said. 

“What we’ve just done recently on the Kitchener corridor, for example, from Brampton in is to run 14 additional, what we call off-peak, mid-day trains so seven going in and seven coming back out. I think you’re going to see similar incremental increases in service on all of our GO lines, including the Barrie line.”

That move is part of GO Transit’s 10-year plan to deliver two-way, all-day electrified service, at up to 15-minute intervals along certain key corridors, such as on the Barrie line from Aurora south to Toronto.