Ontario’s first diverging diamond interchange nearing completion in Niagara Region

Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is set to update residents on a diverging diamond interchange (DDI) project that is near the end of its construction at Glendale Avenue on the QEW in Niagara region.

The project, commissioned in 2020 at an initial cost of around $55 million, has been over two years in the making and expects to reduce vehicle conflicts by allowing unrestricted turning movements.

“It accomplishes this by reconfiguring the traffic lanes to allow for direct access to all four directional highway ramps,” according to a project overview from engineering company Morrison Hershfield.

Signalized intersections will allow free flow, high-volume traffic by having lanes cross each other at either end of the interchange, reducing issues with vehicles accessing on-ramps and those coming off the highway.

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A diagram that depicts a simple version of how traffic and pedestrians navigate through a ‘diverging diamond interchange’ (DDI) under construction at Glendale on the QEW in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

“The new Airport road connection from Glendale Avenue allows for a direct route for traffic to the historic Old Town Niagara-on-the-Lake tourist area by removing the need to navigate left and right turns through two intersections within proximity to one another, and by diverting some traffic from the Glendale Avenue/York Road intersection,” the overview says.

Pedestrians and cyclists are accommodated in the design through a multiuse path down the centre of the interchange, separated and protected from the traffic by concrete barriers.

Riders and walkers can converge at intersections and pass through the interchange between traffic lanes.

The DDI is a first for Ontario. Canada currently has two such interchanges in Calgary and Regina.

A public education session is set for Wednesday (Sept. 7) from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn at 500 York Rd.