An editorial by James Bow (Click here to return to Transit Southwestern Ontario)
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation seems dedicated to installing a major roadway that most residents do not want, and which most people will not need. They have engaged in an astonishing display of blind devotion to a highway proposal that is questionable in its merit, and far too costly in terms of environmental damage realized and tax dollars spent. That this government is skeptical of measures designed to protect our environment is no surprise, but given the pride this government has shown in positioning itself as a government of business, this willingness to waste taxpayers money is truly startling.
Currently, most traffic between the Region of Waterloo and the City of Guelph flows along provincial highway 7. This highway departs Kitchener as Victoria Street, a high-speed arterial road with four driving lanes and one turning lane. After crossing the Grand River and passing close to the community of Breslau, this highway narrows to two lanes and proceeds through rural lands until it reaches northwestern Guelph. There, the highway becomes Woodlawn Road, widens back out to four driving lanes and a turning lane, and passes car dealerships, factories and other industrial head-offices.
The highway traffic that does not turn into the parking lots surrounding these industries in Guelph continues a few blocks east and turns south onto the Hanlon Expressway. The Hanlon starts at Woodlawn Road as a four-lane highway with a median, and continues to Highway 401, although Highway 7 turns west at an interchange (currently under construction) and meanders its way towards Toronto.
The people using Highway 7 are generally Region of Waterloo commuters bound for jobs in Guelph. Most of those jobs are to be found in the industrial parks lining Woodlawn Road, although others work at industrial parks in the southern part of Guelph, near the Hanlon Expressway, and in downtown Guelph itself. Although the narrow two-lane highway between Kitchener and Guelph flows freely during most times of the week, it sees considerable traffic during rush-hours, and delays are not uncommon. As it is the only major connection between Kitchener and Guelph, and as both areas expect their populations to increase in the next twenty years, proposals have been put forward to improve this link.
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The Ministry's Favoured Proposal and Current/Projected Traffic Patterns: Note that the new highway does not change the basic pattern. (click on the image to see the map in full size) |
The Ministry of Transportation wants to build a new, four-lane, limited access highway between Kitchener and Guelph. This would begin at a complex high-speed interchange with the Conestoga Parkway near Wellington and Lancaster in east Kitchener and would parallel Victoria Street and the old Highway 7 about a mile to their north, before turning south to connect directly with the Hanlon Expressway in northwest Guelph.
This proposal is part of a larger plan on the Ministry’s books. The Hanlon Expressway pulled Highway 6 off of Woolwich Street and Gordon Street in Guelph and provided a high-speed run along the west side of Guelph to the 401. The Ministry wishes to replace the portion of Highway 6 south of the 401 with a similar four-lane highway running all the way to the City of Hamilton. The Highway 7 proposal, coupled with the Highway 6 proposal and the Conestoga Parkway, would produce a four-lane limited-access highway running from Hamilton, through Guelph and Kitchener, to almost Stratford.
For one thing, it’s not needed.
Although the connection between Kitchener and Guelph is operating at capacity during rush hours, at any other time of the day Highway 7 flows smoothly. Others have come forward, including property owners adjacent to the current Highway 7, to say that widening the current highway to four lanes (as it is now on Victoria Street and Woodlawn Road) would be sufficient in clearing the bottleneck that the two-lane highway now represents.
Secondly, the proposed alignment for the new Highway 7 runs through numerous environmentally sensitive areas around the Grand River and to the north of the current Highway 7. The rural lands of Waterloo Region are an undisputed regional resource that should not be threatened by a highway of questionable value. The designers of the highway have tried to address the environmental concerns by adjusting the alignment of the highway to skirt past the area, but this arrangement has not done enough to significantly reduce the threat the new highway poses.
Finally, there is the matter that alternatives do exist to address concerns that are pushing the Highway 7 proposal in the first place. These alternatives are significantly cheaper and more environmentally sound.
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Alternate: by connecting Fairview Road with Kossuth Road, thousands of southern Kitchener residents no longer have to go out of their way to use Victoria Street in order to get to Guelph. (click on the image to see the map in full size) |
I am not talking about greater investment in public transportation, although trains and buses have been woefully overlooked as a transportation alternative to augment the capacity of our highway network. Cheaper road alternatives have also been overlooked which, if implemented, may even serve car drivers better for less of a drain on our tax dollars.
An opponent to the Highway 7 proposal has put forward a counter-proposal which has become known as the Vogel plan. This plan calls for the widening of the current Highway 7 and the construction of a shorter limited-access highway branching off from Highway 7 near Breaslau and running west, parallel to Victoria Street, to meet the Conestoga Parkway at a high-speed interchange. This would significantly improve upon the current connection Highway 7 makes with the Conestoga Parkway and would cost significantly less than Ministry of Tranportation’s preferred option.
Another issue that the Ministry’s preferred option does not address is the bottleneck issue. The fact remains that Highway 7 is still the only connection of note between the growing cities of Guelph, Kitchener and Waterloo. The Grand River provides an effective barrier, forcing residents from south Kitchener to trek north to Victoria Street before continuing their journey to Guelph. The bulk of Kitchener’s growing population are locating in areas developing in the south and southwest portions of the city. The current Highway 7 is carrying hundreds of cars each day, which have diverted out of their way in order to get to Guelph the only way they can. A full-fledged limited-access highway north of the current Highway 7 does nothing to address this.
What is needed is an alternate route across the Grand River. From the Village of Conestogo to the City of Cambridge, the only bridges across the Grand River are at Bridge Street (through the old village of Bridgeport), Victoria Street (the current Highway 7) and Highway 8 (which runs southeast, through Cambridge, towards Hamilton). The residents of Cambridge make use of old Highway 24, which runs northeast through that city, entering Guelph near its central west side.
The gap between Highway 7 and Highway 8 is substantial. A bridge across the Grand halfway between these points would provide a much more convenient route for thousands of southern Kitchener residents. A major arterial road is already built which approaches the Grand at this halfway point: Fairway Road. On the other side of the river, Kossuth Road runs at speeds of 80 kilometres per hour before ending at Highway 24. If one could bridge the gap between Fairway and Kossuth, the residents of southern Kitchener could access Highway 24.
Even as a two-lane road, Kossuth could divert hundreds of cars daily off of Highway 7, eliminating the need for a new limited-access highway. Since Fairway Road and Kossuth Road are already built, the only cost incurred is the bridge over the Grand, and extending Fairway Road and Kossuth Drive to meet this bridge.
The reluctance of the Ministry of Transportation to even consider these significantly cheaper and possibly more useful options illustrates the hypocrisy of the current Conservative government. Despite all their efforts to cut "needless" spending to our hospitals and our schools, they are willing to waste our tax dollars on a questionable and costly fix to a transportation problem that isn’t nearly as serious as they seem to think. Therefore, we must continue to pressure the Ministry of Transportation to acknowledge the potential of these alternatives and hope that, someday, common sense will prevail.
Feel free to contact the webmaster: Jonathan English.
Last Updated: April 5, 2000. Thank you for visiting
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