It really is annoying that Ontario premier Ford has started his election campaign with emphasis on the ‘400’ series highways. We all know that it takes years and extensive planning and modelling before the first truck load of concrete is poured. When you do the planning on the fly to improve on your re-election chances, you are sure to get it wrong.
And typical of Doug Ford, he listens to all the experts and then does what he intended to do.
One example was that in an attempt to win back the Durham provincial riding for the conservatives, the premier cancelled the tolls charged on highways 412 and 418. Both of these highways are less than 10 kilometers long and currently connect the 407 Electronic Toll Route (ETR) with provincial highway 401. Highway 412 goes through Whitby and highway 418 connects just east of Oshawa. Mind you, he forgot to cancel the more profitable tolls on the Ontario-owned portion of highway 407.
But the main problem with Doug Ford’s enthusiasm for highways are the proposed new highway linking King City and Milton (known as highway 413) and the Bradford Bypass designed to link highways 404 and 400. The problem is that highway 413 is a special prize for the premier’s developer friends who knew to buy up all the available farmland around the proposed interchanges for future development. Most Ontario residents are trying to figure out why we need three controlled access highways (401, 407 and 413) in parallel across the valuable farmlands, wet lands and aquifers of that part of rural Ontario?
The problem with the Bradford Bypass (also known as the Highways 400 and 404 Link) is that it has been needed to ease traffic on both highways for the past 30 years. At present, the north and south bound traffic have only three roads through the Town of Newmarket to connect the two highways.
Any Torontonian with a cottage in Muskoka can tell you that the province has been putting in new six lane overpasses for highway 400, north of where the 404 will connect, for the past six years. Planning and implementation of highway projects take many years. Hopefully Doug Ford will not be around long enough to get them screwed up.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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