$1.4B highway investment a good start, but infrastructure gap still needs closing OTA

TORONTO — The Ontario Trucking Association, welcomed the announcement yesterday by Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar that the Ontario Government will be investing $1.4 billion this year in highway repair and new construction, but also warned that more investment is needed if the province’s transportation system is to keep pace with our expanding society and economy.

The Government’s investment will mean the building of 58 km of new lanes, over 1200 km of highway repairs, 120 bridge repairs, and the creation of 10 km of new carpooling lanes.

Key project highlights, include:

The hwy funding Ontario announced is welcome, but OTA wants to
see more of the $6B drivers pay in fuel taxes put back into roads

Repairing Highway 6 from Highway 403 to Highway 5 and building a new interchange at York Road to improve driving conditions and increase road safety; extending Highway 410 from Bovaird Drive to Mayfield Road; Widening Highway 7 from two to four lanes from Highway 417 to Carleton; Building new bridges at Bronte Creek and Sixteen Mile Creek to accommodate the future widening of the QEW, an important international trade route.

The government will also widen Highway 401 from four to six lanes from Port Hope to Cobourg, a major trade corridor used by 14,200 truck drivers every day; Widening Highway 401 from four to six lanes from Highway 402 to Wellington Road in London and replacing the Wellington Road interchange to ease congestion along this major economic corridor leading to the Michigan border; and repairing Highway 402 from Lambton Road 26 to Lambton Road 30 near Sarnia to improve road conditions leading to the Blue Water Bridge.

“$1.4 billion is a significant amount of money and the Minister and the government should be congratulated for making this important investment in our highway system. But at the same time its important to remember that we have neglected our transportation infrastructure for decades as other priorities dominated the agendas, and spending plans, of governments at all levels. We have a lot of catching up to do”, said OTA President David Bradley.

“Congestion on our roads is strangling the economy by hampering the reliable, efficient and timely movement of goods that our manufacturers, retailers and exporters rely upon. And at the same time it is diminishing the quality of life of our citizens by reducing their mobility, contributing to air pollution and GHG emissions and forcing them to spend an increasingly large part of their day just fighting through the gridlock.”

Even with road users paying over $6 billion a year to the province and feds in the form of gas and diesel taxes or licensing fees, there is an infrastructure gap between the tax revenue generated from road users and what’s put back into the pavement, says Bradley.

“We need a funded long-term plan and a way to move forward without significant projects getting bogged down in an environmental assessment process which lately seems to be more about protecting certain property values and other special interests than the environment,” he said.

“This cannot be a one-time shot in the arm but the beginning of a new era of sustained strategic investment in Ontario’s highway system, and a new era of increased awareness at Queen’s Park about the importance of Ontario’s highways to our economic success and our quality of life.”