End in sight for traffic congestion
[attach]5035[/attach]During rush hours, it is not uncommon to spend more time waiting to get on the Allen Expressway than actually driving on it.
The congestion plaguing commuters trying to access Allen Road from Eglinton Avenue West was worse this October. Eastbound and westbound traffic was reduced to a single lane each way due to the construction an additional lane to one of the onramps, which is designed to open the bottleneck that traps commuters there.
Drivers headed west on Eglinton will now have a second lane after turning right on to the northbound Allen Road onramp, according to project engineer Ty Rosanally.
“We did a study and found that most of the traffic is coming from the east going westbound so the volume of traffic turning on to that lane is a high volume,” Rosanally said. “We are adding an additional lane for 150 metres to the west side of the ramp.”
Workers at the site say they broke ground on Oct. 10 but, as Ward 21 councillor Joe Mihevc pointed out, the project has been years in the making.
“We’ve been working on this project for three years,” he said. “This was where the province drew the line along stopping the Spadina Expressway a couple of generations ago so we needed to get provincial authority from the Ministry of Transportation to have that extra lane put in.”
In addition to the new lane for cars there will also be bicycle lanes put in place along Eglinton.
The estimated cost of the entire project is $600,000 and is scheduled to be completed by November.
“Yes, it’s going to be a mess until the end of October but then it will really ease the bottleneck congestion at that intersection,” Mihevc said.
