Ambitious New Highway Project Breaks Ground in Ontario

The Tom Warne Report, 8 September 2011

The Amherstburg Echo – August 19, 2011

LASALLE – Work has begun on one of the most ambitious road projects in history – the $1.4 billion Windsor-Essex Parkway. The new 6.8-mile highway consists of a new six-lane, below-grade freeway which will extend Highway 401 and separate local and international traffic through the Windsor-Detroit gateway. The project also includes a four-lane service road network, which extends Highway 3 to eliminate traffic congestion in residential areas. More than 300 acres of green space, new community connections and over 12 miles of recreational trails are also part of the plans.

“I look at it as a 50-year conclusion of the 401,” said Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara at the groundbreaking ceremony. “They started at this end, they forgot that little component. We’re completing the 401.” The road is scheduled to open to traffic in the fall of 2014 with landscaping and related work to be finished by the summer of 2015.

The Minister of Transportation called the project “an efficient gateway to Canada’s busiest trade corridor.” An average of $1.6 million in trade crosses the Canada-U.S. border each day according to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

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