Future Expansion of the Red Hill Valley Parkway and Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway

The time has come, and is actually long overdue, for the expansion to the original six lanes proposed over 30 years ago for both the Red Hill Valley Parkway and Lincon M. Alexander Parkway. When “The Linc” opened, the original estimate for the annual average daily traffic was 40,000 vehicles per day. Today, in reality, the annual average daily usage is approximately 88,000 vehicles per day (including the additional truck traffic due to the revised Truck Route Master Plan that was approved and implemented two years ago) whereas the annual average daily traffic for the Red Hill Valley Parkway is 92,000 vehicles per day. Last term’s Council as well as the current Council are on record for exploring the feasibility of the proposed expansion of both the Linc and Red Hill Valley Parkway to six lanes with the caveat that the “pinch points” for the Linc (at Highway 403) and Red Hill (at the Queen Elizabeth Way), must be resolved by the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO). Over the years, I was consistently a strong supporter of building both the Linc and the Red Hill for a number of reasons including significantly reducing the number of heavy trucks off of our neighbourhood roads and escarpment passes such as the Kenilworth Access and for providinga transportation corridor to further bring goods and services to our burgeoning Red Hill Business Park and to accommodate the growth on the East Mountain, Upper Stoney Creek, and Binbrook. I am so proud of the enormous benefits these two corridors have brought to Hamilton!