The following is information about the Bolton By-Pass currently being planned out, the above picture is the route it will take through Bolton, Ontario. Richard Whitehead, Regional Councillor for Caledon’s Ward 3 & 4 was kind enough to type out and provide all this useful information that until now seemed difficult to come by online.

The “Bolton by-pass” is the name commonly given to the western arm of the Bolton Arterial Road System (B.A.R.). It’s called the by-pass because it is the only part of the system that will carry “all” vehicle on a north south route without going through Bolton’s core.

About 20 years ago, a process was started to identify a road network to carry increasing traffic volumes in, and through, Bolton as it continued to grow. The final system called for a road network for both the East and West side of Bolton plus an east – west industrial collector in south Bolton. The study not only included roads in Caledon but Coleraine Drive in Brampton as well.

The Eastern arterial allows for all types of vehicles south of King Street down to Mayfield and only light vehicles north of King Street.

The eastern route was completed some years ago with the rebuilding of the Town Line from Mayfield Road to King Street as a two lane road (capable of widening to four lanes) built to carry all vehicles including heavy trucks. The road north of King Street has been rebuilt all the way up to Castlederg sideroad and is paved from there (Mount Wolfe Road) all the way to Hwy 9 but only for light vehicles.

The road network carries considerable traffic at commuter hours to Bolton, East Albion and many communities north of Hwy 9. It also relieves traffic, particularly truck traffic, from the south hill and the Bolton core that is going south to east on hwy 50 and from Mayfield Road to King Street east in York Region.

The industrial connector is the George Bolton Parkway but is only completed from Coleraine Drive to Hwy 50 and has not been completed from Hwy 50 to the Town Line.

The western arterial route (Bolton by-pass) is the most complex and most expensive part of the B.A.R. It has been further complicated by the need to replace virtually all of the utilities in the corridor to facilitate further development in the industrial area and to provide services for the residential area west of Coleraine Drive (Greenpark).

For several years now, the project has been proceeding in phases with the majority of the utility work being installed first (hydro, water, sewers, gas etc). Phase one of the road work was to build the four lane arterial from Mayfield Road. This is substantially completed but there will be traffic lights installed at Parr Avenue, The George Bolton Parkway, and Healey Road at a later date.

Phase two is the section from Healey Road to Holland Drive and should be substantially completed by spring.

Phase three is going to tender as we speak. It will be the section from Holland Drive to just past Harvest Moon. This complex section will include the construction of a new King Street connection to downtown Bolton starting at Harvest Moon. This will create a new four way signalized intersection on Coleraine at Harvest Moon and King Street.

From this point on, construction of the by-pass will be the responsibility of the Region of Peel who will complete it from Harvest Moon north to Duffy’s Lane and then through the river valley to Hwy 50 north ending just on the north side of James Dick Construction. This section of the arterial road will be very expensive and will include such features as a possible round about at Coleraine and King Street / Duffy’s Lane, and a lengthy span bridge over the Humber River. This part of the road will continue as a four lane road to Duffy’s Lane and a two lane road (with four lane capability) after that. The bridge will be equipped to handle four lanes.

Construction of the Region’s share of the road commence in 2011 with completion in 2013.

At the same time, the small remainder of the of the Greenpark subdivision will be completed as King Street West is straightened out to meet the new arm of Coleraine Drive.

As you know, the Province is intending to extend the 427 north to Major Mackenzie Drive in about 2015. Effectively, this will bring all 427 traffic to Hwy 50. Peel is recommending, in this event, that Major Mackenzie be extended into Brampton, as a regional road, and that this new road swing up to intersect Mayfield Road near, or at, Humber Station Road.

At the same, it is recommended that Coleraine Drive (in Brampton) be rebuilt to a four lane standard and intersect this new Major Mackenzie extension instead of Hwy 50 as it does today.

The effect will be that all traffic north bound on 427, or hwy 50, and that is westbound or using the Bolton by-pass will be diverted from Bolton.

Consequently, the Bolton by-pass will process a very large volume of inter-regional traffic.

The funding needed for the B.A.R. has been, and will continue to be, enormous. Ontario, Peel, Caledon, Brampton and the development industry area are all partnering in the project. The total cost including connections from the 427 and the full B.A.R. with utilities may top $100 million. Very little of the cost will be financed from debt.

This road network should significantly relieve traffic congestion in the Mayfield – Town line – Queen Street intersection and reduce through volumes in Bolton.

Originally the Highway 427 expansion was envisioned to go north to Highway 9 with talk of it going even further north toward Collingwood. Any thought of those plans are long dead, in today’s times with public and government more conscious about the environment it is unlikely that the 427 would ever be expanded beyond Bolton if it even gets that far. Currently the plan is to extend the 427 north to Major Mackenzie Drive as it will service the CP rail yard keeping more trucks off of Hwy 50 and 27 as well this terminus location is in line with other planned municipal road improvements and will have the least environmental impact.

If all goes ahead with current preferred route the Highway 427 will be extended approximately 6.6km from Hwy 7 and will have 3 new interchanges at Langstaff Road, Rutherford Road and Major Mackenzie Drive. The expansion will consist of 6 lanes from Steeles Avenue to Rutherford Road and go down to 4 lanes from Rutherford to Major Mackenzie with possible HOV lanes in each direction. Also to be added would be a new carpool lot at the Rutherford Road interchange.

Interestingly in the key features of the latest 427 Transportation Corridor Environmental Assessment Study report it still makes note that it “will not preclude future extension of Highway 427” still leaving the door open for the future to go beyond Bolton if needed however that may be exceedingly difficult with Green Belt and the Oak Ridges Moraine just above, local opposition to the 427 going north of Bolton would likely be much stronger.

For more information about the 427 Extension you can visit the official study website. All the current public information from the last meeting can be found by clicking here.

Just to quickly describe the above image, at the bottom is Hwy 7 and at the top is Major Mackenzie Drive/CP Rail Yard and in between is the current route it would follow with the new interchanges. Click on the image to open up a high resolution PDF (note: the PDF image will be rotated 90 degrees clockwise).