40% of RHVP crashes happen between Mud and King streets

The Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) stretches about 12 kilometres, but a four-kilometre portion of the busy parkway has been highlighted as the most dangerous.

According to the city of Hamilton, of the nearly 1000 crashes on the Red Hill that were reported to police between 2013 and last year, 40 per cent happened in the northbound lanes from Mud St. to King St. Three of the collisions have been deadly.

The city is still trying to figure out why that stretch is so dangerous. “We know that you’re descending a pretty considerable grade at that location, there’s lot of curves in the road at that location and as the community is aware we have friction levels that are lower than we liked them to be,” said Dan McKinnon, general manager of Public Works.

While the friction levels have been the main topic of conversation surrounding the RHVP, they are above minimum regulations.

Between 2013 and 2018 there have been 207 crashes between Greenhill Ave. and King St. and from Mud St. to Greenhill Ave. there were 191 collisions.

In May, the city will be re-surfacing the entire parkway and new lighting will be installed in the future. The curves of the road will also be looked at.

Last month, the city lowered the speed limit from Greenhill Ave. to the QEW from 90 km/h to 80 km/h.