WINDSOR, Ont. - The most expensive highway ever built in Ontario will link Highway 401 with a new international bridge to be built over the Detroit River in Windsor, the federal and Ontario governments announced Thursday.
Construction is expected to start next year on the $1.6 billion, 12 kilometre stretch of six-lane "below grade roadway," which will run through Windsor and the neighbouring communities of Tecumseh and LaSalle.
The new highway will include 11 tunnel sections stretching about two kilometres, while other parts will be built below-grade to minimize the impact of traffic noise and exhaust on neighbourhoods. The project will also create about 240 acres of park land and 20 kilometres of recreational trails.
The five-year construction plan is expected to create about 12,000 project-related jobs, two-thirds of them in Windsor, which has been reeling from layoffs because of the downturn in the auto sector.
The new access road would be five times more expensive per kilometre than any previous highway built in Ontario, but it must first pass an environmental assessment before it gets final approval.
Both levels of government are recommending it proceed, announced Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, who was joined by Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello, both of whom represent Windsor ridings.
Highway 401 currently stops about 12 kilometres short of the border with Detroit, forcing trucks onto city streets and slowing down international trade. Provincial officials say a motorist driving from Toronto to Florida by highway encounters 19 traffic lights, 16 of them in Windsor.
Getting the truck traffic off Windsor's streets and improving the speed with which vehicles and goods can get across the international border has long been a goal of the local, provincial and federal governments.
Several options are still being considered for the new bridge to be built at the Windsor-Detroit crossing, and the exact location is expected to be announced in the next few months by the Detroit River International Crossing committee, a joint project of Transport Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce hailed the new highway as a "critical step" toward the opening of that new international crossing in 2013. Chamber president Len Crispino said improving the flow of traffic at the border is a "matter of national and international urgency."
"Secure but efficient trade and tourism is vital to the continued prosperity of our country, and to our relations with our largest trading partner," he said in a statement. "But it's also a crucial factor in the attraction of new investment."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/05/01/5441151-cp.html
Stumble It!
http://www.weparkway.ca/
& the Transport Canada new release:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/ ... -h118e.htm
...while other parts will be built below-grade to minimize the impact of traffic noise and exhaust on neighbourhoods.
Once that bottleneck is eliminated a truck driver working for a Canadian trucking company could do another round trip per week (or month, or whatever). How is that a bad idea?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/busin ... yt&emc=rss
http://www.nascocorridor.com/faqsdetail ... 87&pageno=
"The three leaders sit down in earnest this morning [in New Orleans] for their summit session, where border issues are high on the agenda."
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/416874
There are reports that an announcement, involving $2 billion in investments, is expected on improving the situation at the Detroit-Windsor border crossing – the busiest trade corridor in North America.
Not that the connection is inherently bad, but all of the tracking technology to be implemented along with it presents a growing intrusion of the state into another najor sector of the economy, as it will then be set up to measure and data-mine trade flows more effectively as the integration of the American and Canadian economies continues apace.