KITCHENER -- They don't build many highways more complicated than this. Engineers have proposed a fearsome, $25-million interchange at Wellington Street in Kitchener that includes two high-speed flyovers and stacks up to four levels of traffic in a tower of concrete and motion.
The engineering marvel is essentially a high-speed interchange for through traffic built above a lower-speed interchange for local traffic.
It's intended to link Highway 86 to a proposed new Highway 7 to Guelph that remains several years away.
Electrohome chairman John Pollock is not convinced it's necessary.
"It's a very, very complex interchange," said Pollock, whose firm would lose some vacant land to the proposed interchange.
"As a taxpayer, I guess I am concerned that, yes, maybe 50 years from now that kind of an interchange might be required . . . but it seems to me that there are much, much simpler solutions."
The proposed Wellington Street interchange looks like spaghetti thrown against a map.
The new, upper interchange would be built with twin, two-lane flyovers to send motorists from freeway to freeway without stopping.
At its summit, motorists would soar above three levels of traffic.
The existing lower interchange would be remodelled to better handle local traffic around Wellington and Victoria streets.
Pollock wonders why engineers don't expand existing interchanges to handle extra traffic.
This would force drivers to slow while exiting one highway and entering another, but would cost much less, he figures.
Provincial officials contend traffic would be too heavy for existing interchanges and there's not enough space to expand them.
"The only way we could really accommodate it is to build an interchange over top of another," said Brian Goudeseune, project manager for the Ministry of Transportation.
Without flyovers, Goudeseune worries motorists would be caught offguard by braking and by unexpected slowdowns at traffic lights and merger zones.
"It ends up being a safety concern," he said.
He cites the hated interchange, soon to be replaced by a flyover, that forces motorists to merge in tight space at Highway 8 and Highway 86.
"That's the type of thing we're trying to avoid," he said.
Two Victoria Street buildings and lands at several industrial and commercial sites could be lost to proposed flyovers and access ramps.
Marks Supply on Riverbend Drive is among those that may be forced to relocate, although this has not persuaded president Robin Todd to abandon her support for a new highway.
Instead, she's critical of the process and timing of buyouts for affected properties, which she describes as cumbersome and uncertain.
Her firm can't expand where it is because of the proposed interchange but may have to wait years for a provincial buyout to relocate.
"We're in sort of a rock and a hard place," Todd said. "I think it looks like a beautiful piece of design. I just want to keep my company going in the meantime."
Pollock shares Todd's concerns. Electrohome wants to sell its vacant land but has already seen a proposed sale scuttled by highway uncertainty. He, too, would like to see the Highway 7 debate resolved.
"This thing has been going round and round and round for many, many years," he said.