Four-Laning

Submitted by Editor on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 09:56.
Date: -->
Monday Dec 07, 2009
By
Temiskaming Speaker, Wednesday December 2 2009
Is it feasible to turn 1,650 kilometres of highways 11 and 17, stretching from North Bay to the Manitoba border, into a four-lane divided highway?“We can do it, fairly easily,” says Judy Skidmore, publisher of The Working Forest newspaper.“How much and when? A Vision for Ontario’s Trans Canada Highway, North Bay to the Manitoba Border” was commissioned by the newspaper, which is headquartered in Callander.The study concluded that the project — which would take in 85 bridges, 56 kilometres of road upgrades through urban centres, and almost 1,600 kilometres of highway — can be completed over 25 years, with work beginning in seven sections simultaneously.“The cost is only $600 million per year, an amount already in the budgets of provincial coffers,” the study concluded.What’s pushing the proposal?Safety, Ms. Skidmore said.“I’m sick of all the deaths,” she told the Temiskaming Municipal Association in Earlton last week.She said the stretch of the Trans-Canada through Northern Ontario is below standards elsewhere in the United States, Europe and even other parts of Canada.And yet, she said, “this is the permanent highway across Canada.”THE STUDYIt’s not the first time that the idea has been proposed.“Whenever we talked about it, it was always, ‘well, it’s going to cost too much, it’s going to take too long.’ So I wanted to know much is it going to cost and how long is it going to take.”The study was prepared by James Liddell of North Bay, and financed with support from the Manitoulin Group of Companies, headquartered in Gore Bay, and Villeneuve Construction of Hearst.Costing data for four-laning and major bridge replacements was drawn from Ontario Ministry of Transportation reports on ongoing Northern construction projects.The study came up with an average cost of $8.4 million per kilometre for road construction and $13.8 million per bridge.“We have not yet had anybody say those numbers are not good,” she said.“Construction people, ministry people have said, ‘sounds about right, sounds about the right amount of time.’”As early as the 1960s, she said Transport Canada identified divided highways as being the safest.The study cites a 2003 study commissioned by the federal department that came to the same conclusion, with the use of overpasses a second leading factor in reducing road crashes.In the European Union, she said it’s now understood that the designers of transportation systems are ultimately responsible for their operation, use and level of safety.“So those accidents that happen out there, the finger has to be pointed at the government who designed the road, who put us on 24 feet of pavement coming at each other at 100 kilometres per hour, separated by four inches of paint,” she said.The report outlines the work, cost and timeline in each of the seven sections.The 156-kilometre stretch from North Bay to Dymond would require the four-laning of several bridges, including crossings in Latchford, Net Lake and Granite Lake.Overpasses would be added at Highway 64 and the southern entrances to Cobalt and Haileybury.In communities split by the highway — such as Temagami and Latchford - -the roadway would be widened only enough to accommodate turning lanes.Total cost is pegged at $1.5 billion, with the work completed in under two and a half years.Looking north, the project would include overpasses at Highway 569, Highway 582 to Thornloe, the north and south entrances to Earlton, Highway 624 to Larder Lake and Highway 560 to Charlton.The study describes the four-laning of the bridge over the Englehart River as “a huge project,” and doubles the estimated cost to $27.6 million.RESPONSE“One of the biggest problems is you’ve got to get the guys in Toronto understanding that you can’t get from Toronto to Winnipeg through Canada without coming here,” she said.She urged that the route no longer be called “the Northern highway.”“Call it what it is — the Trans-Canada Highway. Then all of us in Canada have a stake in upgrading and making that a reasonable road.”A number of municipalities are reviewing the report and endorsing resolutions of support, she said.Further efforts to press the provincial government to move forward with the project are also planned.The Temiskaming Municipal Association donated $1,000 to help with the promotion campaign