At a recent Public Works Committee meeting, Hamilton City Council received a report from staff that the Garner Road Municipal Class Environmental Assessment is complete and ready to be filed with the Municipal Clerk for a minimum 30-day public review period.
The assessment covers Garner Road from Wilson Street to the Highway 403 off-ramp, an area that is set for a complete redesign.
The current state of the road is identified as generally having one lane in each direction, with turning lanes at some intersections, no cycling infrastructure and a sidewalk only on one side of the road in some areas.
Staff’s recommended plan is to widen the road to four lanes with additional turning lanes “where the road footprint allows,” and to add a 3.5-metre multi-use pathway on the north side of the road and a two-metre sidewalk on the south side along the corridor.
The city classifies Garner Road as a major arterial road.
The city’s 2024 Strategic Transportation Network Review reconfirmed the need for road widening of Garner Road “as a response to capacity constraints and to improve multimodal level-of-service along the corridor,” say staff.
Work on the installation of a water main along Garner Road is already underway and is expected to be completed by late 2025, but construction of the complete redesign is not anticipated to start until sometime between 2028 and 2031.
The capital cost of proceeding with the recommended design and construction is estimated to be approximately $36.5 million.
The city says that, by 2031, traffic volume along the road is anticipated to reach 800 to 1,200 vehicles per hour per direction, “with growth continuing through the 2031-2051 period and throughout the lifespan of the reconstructed road (approximately 50 years).”
The typical capacity of the existing roadway is 800 vehicles per hour, which means the city anticipates that the road will be at or above capacity within the next five years.
Another reason that the city wants to expand the road is that it is part of the S-Line in the city’s BLAST transit network.
There are also intersection improvements planned along the corridor.
A two-lane roundabout was considered for the Garner Road and Wilson Street West intersection, but that was eventually not recommended due to “significant property impacts.”
Instead, maintaining a signalized intersection is recommended, but active transportation infrastructure will be added.
For the Garner Road and Highway 6 West Ramp Terminals, which provide access to Highway 403, the city and the Ministry of Transportation are looking to add traffic signals.
Despite the staff report and recommendations coming before Council, the area’s Councillor, Craig Cassar (Ward 12 – Ancaster-West Flamborough), moved to have the report and votes regarding the recommendations deferred to a future meeting.
He said that he spoke to staff and that he thinks that Council “can bring together, hopefully, a better recommendation.”
It is unclear what issues Councillor Cassar has with the recommendation from staff for a four-lane widening of the road.
However, other options considered by staff included keeping the road two lanes but adding queue jump lanes for buses and active transportation infrastructure, widening the road to three lanes, and even widening to five lanes.
Councillors complied with Cassar’s request, and the decision will be revisited in the fourth quarter of 2025.
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