Local officials and residents have been calling for decades for that section of highway, which connects Highway 402 with industries in Sarnia and St. Clair Township, to be doubled from two lanes to four.
An update of plans to double a busy two-lane section of Highway 40 in Sarnia are to be posted online starting Monday so they can be reviewed by the public for feedback.
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Ontario’s Transportation Ministry is holding the online public information center at the project’s website, www.highway40widening.cathrough Dec. 10 with a recommended plan for safety improvements along a seven-km section of the highway from Indian Road to just north of Wellington Street.
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Local officials and residents have been calling for decades for that section of highway, which connects Highway 402 with industries in Sarnia and St. Clair Township, to be doubled from two lanes to four.
It’s already a separated four-lane highway from Indian Road to just south of Rokeby Line in St. Clair Township, where it narrows down again to two lanes, and from about Wellington Street to Highway 402.
The project was listed in Ontario’s 2021 budget and the ministry hired the engineering firm GHD to carry out a preliminary design and class environmental assessment study covering such things as the design of intersections along the route, municipal road realignments, drainage improvements, twinning a bridge over CN Rail lines near Confederation Street, street lighting and measures to mitigate environmental impacts.
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The plan being posted Monday for public comments is the latest step in the process.
“As the project progresses, a Transportation Environmental Study Report (TESR) will be prepared and posted publicly for a 30-day review period,” ministry spokesperson Tanya Blazina said by email.
A current cost estimate for expanding from two to four lanes along the section wasn’t provided by the ministry.
“In order to protect the procurement process and ensure a fair deal for taxpayers, costs will be shared publicly once a contract has been awarded,” Blazina said.
In 2009, the ministry said the estimated cost was $80 million. The latest study is considering alternatives included in a 2004 preliminary design study for doubling the section of highway.
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Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said he has a newspaper clipping from 1985 quoting a fire chief from the former Sarnia Township – now part of the city – calling for the section of highway to be expanded to four lanes.
“There’s still skepticism that it’s government going to happen,” and the could, in the end, decide it’s too costly, but “I think there’s enough momentum” for the project to move ahead, Bradley said.
“It’s needed,” he said. “There was a time, about four or five years in a row, there was a fatality there every year.”
The section of highway carries a mix of local passenger vehicle traffic and transport trucks, including tankers carrying hazardous materials.
“It’s not a good situation,” Bradley said.
Meanwhile, work on improvements to the Highway 40 overpass at London Line in Sarnia continues and is expected to be completed in fall 2024, Blazina said.
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