Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) Highway Rehabilitation

MTO retained GFT to provide detailed design and contract preparation services for rehabilitating approximately 7 kilometers of the QEW from Seventh Street to Niagara Street through downtown St. Catharines, Ontario, going over the Henley Bridge and connecting with King’s Highway 406 that leads to Highway 58, the Welland Canal, and the QEW Glendale Avenue York Road Diverging Diamond Interchange.

Our work also includes rehabilitating:

• Interchange ramps.
• Crossing roads.
• Adjacent service roads that are owned and maintained by the Ministry.

The project’s goals are to eliminate driving surface deficiencies, improve safety, and increase overall ride quality through the critical highway corridor while alleviating construction traffic congestion. Our specific tasks include:

• QEW highway interchange design planning.
• High-speed highway staging and traffic analytics.
• Electrical upgrades at traffic signals, counting stations, and replacing existing high-mast lighting support cables across the highway.
• Visual structural assessment of all bridges through the corridor.
• Active transportation review through grade-separated interchange areas.
• Stormwater management assessment and design.
• Environmental fieldwork and reporting.
• Geotechnical fieldwork, lab work, and design for composite and flexible pavement rehabilitation.
• Topographic survey of the project corridor.

Project challenges include the highway’s heavy traffic volumes, especially during the summer tourist season, around Niagara Falls and Niagara on the Lake. Annual average daily traffic analysis shows spring as the best season for longer-term lane closures needed for the composite concrete slab repairs due to salt corrosion from Canada’s harsh winters.