Pipelines

[foresterab]

until you get caught behind an Airstream. the twinning is a fantastic idea and long overdue; could certainly use that extra lane on the grades. The notion expressed above re: a single corridor carrying rail, road, and pipeline makes a lot of sense except the most direct route would bypass everything between Sudbury and Kenora and leave those towns hanging out to dry

Ah yes...the fun of the one slow vehicle you follow for the next three hours...in a convoy...due to lack of passing lanes, pulloffs, and towns. Even worse when you fill up and don't beat them out of the station and repeat the process.

What is the right route? Not really sure...Kenora to Thunder Bay makes sense. From there to Sault Ste. Marie also makes some sense.

It's the Sault Ste. Marie east that makes me think of a split line - via Sudbury then south and a second towards Timmons/Clay Belt/Ottawa.

To be fair I haven't drove out there in about 20 years but have not heard of any major large scale improvements. If I look at the Kicking Horse Pass twinning in BC (Kamloops to Banff) or Highway 63 (towards Fort Mac) we're talking a solid 5-10 years construction work under current rules for each ~250 km segment. So this is can be started but will need multiple construction kick-off points if you want it done fast.

 

[GK .Dundas]

And as much as I want East/West pipelines across the country...start in Ontario with a bypass plan for Line 5 so that they are not economically dependent upon Michigan pipeline routes.

Heck use the opportunity to twin the TransCanada highway starting from Manitoba. Fire up the dynamite factories and get blasting because it will take a long time to get through the shield country. Anything that reduces the bottleneck of E/W Canada travel and provides viable long term options instead of the US is a positive.

For those that haven't drove it the TransCanada via Highway 11/17 at 90km/hr is about a 1,600 km trip from North Bay to Kenora. Or about 18 hours at posted limits. If the road was upgraded to a 110 km like most of the rest of the TransCanada Highway that same trip is 14.5 hours..a 20% improvement that adds up fast on every semi load.

By the way, that's the new Trans Canada Highway. The old one if you're driving towards Kenora from Winnipeg is your right hand side.
It's a single lane of asphalt poured on the ground with little hillocks every 40 to 50 feet. It resembles nothing so much as a 1930's to 40s cartoonist's idea of a road. Or a paved roller coaster.
When I was kid my old man used to hate driving to Toronto to visit my Mom's side of the family because of that stretch of road. He much preferred the train or even later flying.
It was replaced in the late 70's and widened in the mid 90's .
But still needs a lot to actually make it worthy of the title of a National Highway.