Worst bottlenecks are gone, yet problems remain

IT TOOK A LONG TIME, but Dufferin residents living at or below Camilla finally have a fourlane highway to Toronto, and a freeway once they reach Snelgrove.

One of Ontario's first provincial highways, Highway 10 originally ran between Lakeshore Road in Port Credit and Owen Sound.

Its importance as an artery was underscored in the Roaring Twenties when concrete was selected instead of asphalt when it was paved through Dufferin, and even after the Second World War the concrete surface was in much better shape than the asphalt that had been used on the highway below the Niagara Escarpment.

The highway was widened to four lanes to a point just south of Forks of the Credit Road in the 1960s and a fifth lane for left-turning traffic was added in the 1990s, but the roadway kept its basic two-lane design south of Orangeville long after it had been widened north of the town.

We never were able to get any credible explanation for the long delay in tacitly acknowledging that traffic volumes were just as high above the Escarpment as they were below, or that winter driving was far more hazardous because of the higher elevation.

Of course, the worst bottleneck faced daily by commuters was in Caledon Village, where traffic signals cut the road's capacity roughly in half and lineups on weekends often stretched more than a kilometre.

Although that bottleneck could and should have been dealt with by widening the road to four lanes through the intersection, the contract to accomplish that feat (while also installing sidewalks and handsome street lighting) was the last to be awarded.

Thankfully, Brampton-based Aecon Construction won the contract and completed it before Graham Bros. finished the widening project to the north, which had been awarded at least a year earlier.

Finally, last week saw another huge improvement, with Highway 410 finally being linked to Highway 10 just south of Caledon's Valleywood subdivision. As a result, Toronto-bound traffic on 10 no longer has to cope with half a dozen signalized intersections through Snelgrove and along Mayfield Road to reach 410.

With the construction projects all essentially completed before the first snowfalls, the roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) between Orangeville and downtown Toronto should take travellers less than an hour on off-peak hours and the main challenge will be the rush-hour gridlock routinely encountered between Brampton and Toronto.

If nothing else, the highway improvements ought to improve Dufferin's prospects for economic development.

However, at least three more improvements are badly needed for Highway 10 to play its proper role as the main trunk route between the Greater Toronto Area and the Bruce Peninsula.

Heading that list is the need for a Shelburne bypass.

It simply makes no sense for a highway that's four busy lanes as far north as Camilla and merges with Highway 89 at Primrose to be funnelled into two lanes through the Shelburne business district, much less for today's huge transport trucks to negotiate an 80- degree turn heading from Main Street on to Owen Sound Street.

Interestingly, the situation in Shelburne today closely mirrors that in Orangeville 50 years ago, when planning began for a Highway 10 bypass that would reduce traffic volumes on Broadway and First Street.

Almost as high a priority should be assigned to extending the four-lane highway to Primrose. We don't think there's any doubt that current traffic volumes are remarkably similar north and south of Camilla.

A third project that should get high priority is the roadway between Chatsworth and Owen Sound, which handles highways 6 and 10 and in summer months has volumes comparable with those on the four-lane portions of Highway 10.

Looking further into the future, we think a good case could be made for the eventual extension of 410 — possibly as a toll road — as far as the Owen Sound area.

With the Muskoka and Georgian Bay vacation areas now pricing themselves out of the reach of so many Ontarians, the Bruce Peninsula generally, and the Sauble-area beaches in particular, are clearly poised to become similarly popular playgrounds.

That being the case, such a northward extension of 410 would make the area even more attractive and provide economic stimulus to an area that has lagged behind others in Southern Ontario.

The argument in favour of making it a toll highway would be strengthened by the existence of Highways 10 and 6 as free alternatives.

As for the appropriate route, we would favour one well west of Highway 10, which would terminate at Springmount, just west of Owen Sound.

If nothing else, such a facility would leave Sauble Beach (Ontario's best?) a mere two-hour drive from Hogtown.