Guelph Hanlon

THE GUELPH-HANLON AWARENESS GROUP Additional Information

Noise Pollution

With an increase of traffic on the Hanlon of up to 50,000 vehicles per day, there will be an associated increase in noise and air pollutants from exhaust emissions. Noise will increase substantially.

Adults, teens and children who live, play, go to school and work next to the Hanlon will be most heavily impacted. If traffic increases on adjacent streets, those residents too, will be impacted by noise and poorer air quality.

We know that residents living along the Hanlon are already exposed to noise at greater than the Ministry of the Environment guidelines of 50- 55 decibels.

Ministry of Transportation Guidelines

The Ministry of Transportation noise study indicates that along some areas of the Hanlon, noise levels will rise to above 65 decibels; this is totally unacceptable. The Ministry of Transportation is proposing acoustic noise walls or other engineered solutions. Mitigation in the form of acoustic (noise) walls may bounce the noise into other areas of the community. In some cases the engineered solutions will not lower the noise levels to the Ministry of the Environments 50- 55 decibels guidelines. Specifically, 45 dBA (at night, 50 dBA is allowed during the day) in Urban areas and 40 dBA in Rural areas (MOE Publication NPC 205 & NPC 232). The Ministry of Environment is requiring all the new Wind Turbines projects meet 40 dBA. These ambient noise levels are what we should aim for.

MTO's idea of acceptable noise level:

The following is from one of our readers: When I was at the last public meeting (PIC #2 at Holiday Inn on December 5, 2007) I was discussing the noise level definitions with the MTO official. I thought they were far too high for safe levels now(some days in our backyard we can’t even hear someone talking to us a few feet away). I asked him where these standards were obtained and he said the MTO negotiates the acceptable levels with the Ministry of Environment. He told me that if I lived along the QEW in Toronto the levels would be around 80 or 85 so these really weren’t so bad.

I was appalled that he would make the comparison and before I could say anything another woman who was listening said to him that we don’t live in Toronto, nor do we want to and that is why we are in Guelph.

Environmental Protection Act
Under the Environmental Protection Act noise is a pollutant and the EPA legislates that everyone is entitled to the use and enjoyment of their property. How will this happen if people can't use their backyards or have problems sleeping at night because of noise from the expanded Hanlon? Children who play outside in their yards will receive the most exposure to noise and air pollution. .

Health effects of exposure to noise include

hearing impairment,
speech interference,
sleep disturbance,
cardiovascular and other physiological effects,
psychological effects include loss of performance, loss of memory
effects on residential behavior, and annoyance.

Effects of Air Pollution

Health effects from exposure of people to the "classical" air pollutants sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, and suspended particulate matter include

changes in lung function parameters
exacerbation of respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms,
effects on development
effects on the central nervous system, and
odour annoyance.
respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality

The Hamilton Clean Air Network has been doing some work on the health risks of pollutant exposure near major roadways. The evidence is clear that the air pollutant levels near Hwy 403 / Hwy 6 in Hamilton put the population leaving near those roadways at much higher risk.

Excess Noise and Heart Disease

There appears to be more and more studies indicating that excessive noise is related to higher incidences of heart disease and high blood pressure. More research is needed but it appears that children who are exposed to excess traffic noise also have elevated blood pressures. Read more.

Other effects of noise pollution

Common noise related problems are interference with communication and sleep disturbance (Griefahn et al., 2000). Decreased quality of sleep is considered to be a major health outcome of environmental noise (Berglund and Lindvall,1995). Noise exposure can also cause other non-auditory effects such as annoyance, changes of behavior and deterioration in performance. Long- term effects of road traffic noise on psychosocial health and wellbeing are also described (Ohrstrom et al., 1998). Studies have shown that people living near streets with busy traffic or airports close their windows, spend less time in their gardens, and have less visitors than people living in more quiet areas (Griefahn, 2000). Read more

Creating Walkable Communities

The City of Guelph's Transportation Plan stresses the importance of walking and cycling as alternative forms of transportation. People need to feel safe when they walk or cycle in their communities. Exercise is important for community health and well being.

The interchanges planned by the Ministry of Transportation at College, Stone and Downey/Kortright do not support safe pedestrian or cycling activities. Would you want your children to cycle or walk across a 400 series Highway such as the proposed Hanlon Expressway?

Read more about the importance of walkable communities and how to achieve them in Walkable Communities.

Walkable communities and John Gamble Park

The following comments come from one of our readers:

There is a service entrance to Shadybrook Cr just east of the Hanlon at Kortright that is slated to become an off ramp. Part of the berm and mature trees at John Gamble Park will be destroyed. The service entrance is used by the Shadybrook residents to exit their street in bad winter weather. Most vehicles cannot make it up the Shadybrook hill to Ironwood (I live on the corner and witness this after every snowfall). Essentially with Stantec’s preferred proposal, there will be an entire neighbourhood that will not be able to get off their street on some days in the winter. There is also a dog walking park and many of the users of this park drive there using the service road. The fact that half of a beautiful mature park will be destroyed is heartbreaking.

The following link offers one resident's analysis of the proposed interchange design for Stone Rd. and the Hanlon Expressway. Everyone should read this. The analysis is careful, thorough and intelligent. In his conclusions the writer states:

We are faced with an

Unnecessary
Oversized
Poorly Planned
Environmentally Destructive
Pedestrian Unfriendly
Quality of Life Impacting
Property Value Reducing
Multi Million Dollar Cost

oversized partial cloverleaf interchange just because the MTO (or someone) wants one?

What's wrong with the College Ave. Extension

It has the potential to bring more traffic and speeders into Kortright Hills.
More traffic means more noise, and more exhaust pollutants and these will negatively impact our quality of life, health and safety.
Our school is on Ptarmigan and we cannot support any road option that will potentially increase traffic in front of the school.
The College Ave Extension is designed to connect to the new Stone Rd. extension which crosses the Speed River to connect to Elmira Road to form part of an “inner ring road system” that connects to Highway 7. This will create a new north south roadway network that will bring more traffic into ours and other residential neighbourhoods.
The estimated 1994 cost of the College Ave and Stone Rd. extensions was $7.5 million. These figures are 13 years-old and would probably be over $20 million or more in today’s dollars.
The College Ave Extension cuts through an ecologically sensitive and provincially significant wetland and wooded area and involves a new crossing of the Hanlon Creek right beside the Kortright Waterfowl Park. The new road would cross public land owned by the Grand River Conservation Authority. The ecological damage to the wetland and wooded areas would be immense and irreparable. Anyone who walks the trails in this area can tell you how beautiful and special this area is to both people and wildlife. The wetland forms a vital link to the larger Speed River Wetland which is a major deer wintering area.
Cutting of the mature trees will reduce our air quality.
It makes no sense to build an expensive road through an area where no one lives!
Since this is a municipal road and not part of the Hanlon upgrades, the cost to build and maintain the road will be borne by the City of Guelph and us as taxpayers not the MTO.
Roads require large amounts of gravel. How much fill will the College Avenue extension require?
Road salt and other contaminants from vehicles will pollute the Hanlon Creek and damage the remaining trees and wetland.
Large potential for road kill of deer and injury and death of humans from vehicular collisions with deer, as there is a major deer corridor through this area.
Existing poor sight lines and road grades at Niska and Ptarmigan intersection are already causing traffic accidents.
Any increase in traffic on Niska will only create more problems and delay at the Niska/Downey intersection. In 2005 the Niska/Downey intersection ranked 4^th in priority out of 30 unsignalized intersections being monitored by the city on the basis of vehicle volume and collision hazard. Downey and Woodland Glen was #7 on the priority list, and Laird and Downey was #21 (this despite a number of fatal vehicular collisions in the last 5 years at this particular intersection).

Any and all of the interchanges options as presented will negatively impact residents and businesses in adjacent neighborhoods and streets not just Kortright Hills.

The following links are all from the Victoria Transportation Institute site:

Pavement Busters Guide: How to reduce the amount of land for roads and parking facilities.

Smart Transportation Investments Reevaluating The Role Of Highway Expansion For Improving Urban Transportation

The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be Changing Trends And Their Implications For Transport Planning

If Health Matters: Integrating Public Health Objectives in Transportation Decision-Making

Integrating Public Health Objectives in Transportation Decision-Making

Reinventing Transportation: Exploring the Paradigm Shift Needed to Reconcile Transportation and Sustainability Objectives

Climate Change

The following important news report gives us information about how our human behaviour impacts on climate change.

The Nature of Things (Thurs, Jan 3 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld)
Weather Report
Climate change is irrevocably altering the world as we know it,
challenging our sense of the future and the fundamental values of our
industrial societies. For two hundred years, we, in the west, have
wagered the world that economic growth is the highest form of
progress, burning more and more fossil fuels. WEATHER REPORT takes us on a
journey to the frontlines of our climate changing world in the Canadian
Arctic, Montana, Northern Kenya, China and India, visiting communities and
ordinary people whose lives and livelihoods are being impacted in
the most dramatic ways. More. . .

Here are links to reports dealing with the risk of flooding on expressways and underpasses.

Finch Flood images: August 19, 2005

Hurricane Hazel: 1954

CBC News: Forces of Nature

Flash Flooding in Chicago- images

New expressway in Montreal flooded