More lanes on the Linc? Hamilton inches closer to widening city parkways

Samantha Beattie · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 08, 2025 4:34 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

As much postulation is expected to deed Hamilton's two-lane city-run parkways successful the coming years, officials are looking astatine making some wider.

The Lincoln Alexander Parkway (often referred to as the Linc) and Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) link section roads to provincial highways and are relied connected by thousands of commuters and proscription trucks each day.

A caller feasibility survey has recovered there's capable country on the wrong medians of the parkways to adhd a 3rd lane successful some directions, said Steve Molloy, the city's transportation readying manager. 

Widening the eight-kilometre Linc will outgo astatine slightest $81.5 cardinal and the nine-kilometre RHVP about $56.2 million, helium said. 

"This statement has astir apt going connected for 10 years," Molloy told councillors.

What's antithetic present is the city has established widening can beryllium done and roughly however overmuch it will cost, helium said. But unit are inactive successful the aboriginal stages, truthful far recommending lone that they statesman getting feedback from the public, Indigenous communities and different stakeholders for the Linc widening. 

The nationalist works committee gave unit the greenish airy to do public consultation, with assembly getting the last accidental connected that measurement adjacent week. 

Coun. Matt Francis indicated that astatine council, he'll beryllium asking unit to besides get nationalist feedback connected widening the RHVP, arsenic well.

On an mean day, the Linc sees astir 88,000 trips and the RHVP sees 92,000, said the unit report. During greeting and day unreserved hours, some parkways are operating astatine oregon supra their "design capacity," starring to congestion. 

With the metropolis expected to turn by a 4th cardinal radical by 2051, postulation is expected to get worse, Molloy said. 

"I'm going to enthusiastically enactment immoderate efforts to widen roads," said Coun. Mark Tadeson, whose Ward 11 encompasses businesses adjacent the airdrome that trust connected transportation trucks coming successful done the parkways. 

Coun. Tom Jackson, who represents Ward 6, which includes the parkways, described the Linc arsenic "a monolithic occurrence story" since it opened successful 1997 astatine reducing congestion connected Mountain roads. 

He said he's "extremely supportive" of its widening particularly arsenic the metropolis has, successful caller years, diverted transport trucks from downtown streets, expanding the fig utilizing the parkways instead.

'Ever expanding congestion'

But Gaby Kalapos, enforcement manager of the Clean Air Partnership, told nationalist works the "sad reality" is widening highways is not lone costly but also does not trim congestion successful the agelong run, arsenic reseearch suggests.

"When you physique caller lanes, the archetypal simplification successful postulation that makes driving much charismatic prompts individuals to instrumentality much trips and increases the reliance connected azygous occupancy vehicles," said Kalapos, speaking arsenic a delegate. 

"This results in ever expanding congestion implicit time."  

She encouraged councillors to see alternatives strategies to "actually code congestion and admissions much effectively." 

Those alternatives could beryllium adding carpooling lanes, gathering up nationalist transit infrastructure, adding transit-only parkway lanes and uncovering ways to promote different ways of getting around like walking, biking oregon riding electric scooters, she said. 

The unit study notes these could beryllium alternatives to lane widening, oregon the metropolis could add lanes in lone immoderate cardinal areas.

Coun. Craig Cassar (Ward 12) said he'll be requesting, astatine council, that unit look much intimately astatine these alternatives. 

"If we measurement backmost and look astatine it much holistically, I deliberation we get a amended reply and find if this is the champion mode to walk wealth to connection amended transportation," helium said. 

"No 1 is trying to get the car to spell away. It's astir giving options." 

The metropolis is besides waiting to perceive from the state about how it whitethorn improve connections from the Linc and RHVP to Highway 403 and the Queen Elizabeth Way, respectively.

Coun. Ted McMeekin (Ward 15) asked whether the Ministry of Transportation had said whether it would instrumentality implicit the parkways, a petition unit made past year.

That petition has gone unanswered, said Molloy.