Expedite concrete median barriers on 401: Chatham-Kent council

Chatham-Kent council is asking Ontario’s Transportation Ministry to speed up installation of concrete median barriers on Highway 401.

Article content

The call came in a motion Monday night after municipal staff updated politicians on several ministry projects planned for the superhighway. Their report outlined plans including resurfacing and improvements to the Bloomfield Road interchange.

Article content

Chatham Coun. Alysson Storey won council support for a motion asking the municipality to write the ministry seeking an updated timeline for barrier construction.

“The issue of 401 improvement and safety upgrades has been a priority of mine for many years now,” said Storey, who took up the cause after family friend Sarah Payne and Payne’s daughter, Freya, 5, both of London, died in a 2017 median crossover crash.

The update showed progress on median barriers, but that’s mainly due to installation of “temporary cable barriers, and the concrete median barrier construction that has begun.”

Article content

High-voltage cable barriers were completed in 2020.

Concrete barriers installed between Windsor and Merlin, and east from London, have proven effective in preventing fatal crossover crashes, Storey said. They also protect first responders and tow crews at crash scenes.

The municipality’s letter will be circulated to neighboring municipalities, emergency services, the Association of Municipalites of Ontario, the Rural Ontario Municipal Association and Good Roads.

Storey credited councils going back to 2017 municipal and ministry staff, OPP, and concerned members of the public for their “unwavering and consistent support” for median barrier upgrades.

“It’s not a role I think any of us would have chosen, but it is something we can be proud of,” she said.

Article content

A multi-year ministry project to expand and improve about 118 kilometers of Highway 401 is underway.

The Bloomfield interchange project will involve a “significant reconfiguration. . . to provide safety and capacity improvements,” the staff report said.

The work will shut down Bloomfield Road for a long period, since it involves replacing two bridges (over the 401 and Jeannette’s Creek) and building up embankments to increase the span’s height over the highway.

Construction would start in 2025, with completion in 2026 or ’27, the report said. Dates and durations of road closings will be identified during the design phase, the ministry has said.

Article content

“Given the type of work that they’re doing, most likely, the closure of Bloomfield itself would be a year,” said Edward Soldo, Chatham-Kent’s general manager of infrastructure and engineering.

“This is a very complex interchange. They’re actually raising the road itself. So, that is what made them consider closing the road,” he added. “They had originally looked at a parallel roadway, or parallel bridge, being built at the same time. That’s almost impossible to do when you’re actually raising the grade.”

Soldo said the municipality will stress to the ministry that “the shorter (the closing), the better.”

Staff will continue to work with the ministry on specific detour routes.

“Regardless of official detour routes, it is anticipated that the closure of Bloomfield Road will cause traffic to divert onto various roads in the vicinity, particularly other roads that cross Highway 401 between the Queen’s Line interchange and the Highway 40/Communication Road interchange,” the report said.

[email protected]

Article content