Dig Doug!
Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants to build a tunnel under Hwy. 401 to relieve congestion. Ford made the announcement early Wednesday morning with the jam-packed highway behind him as a backdrop.
“Today, I’m announcing that our government is exploring the feasibility of a tunnel under Hwy. 401,” Ford said.
There was no cost provided for building the highway or the feasibility study, but Ford spoke as if the underground highway was getting built.
“We’re going to get the job done, mark my words,” Ford said.
The idea is for a tunnel that would take car traffic and provide a public transit component from Mississauga to Markham. That’s a distance of more than 50 kilometres and Ford said one of the reasons for conducting a feasibility study was to determine the length of the project.
While Ford admitted the project may seem pie in the sky to some, he said the cost of doing nothing and keeping people stuck in gridlock also comes with a steep price.
“You have to be a visionary,” Ford said. “You have to look at the cost of $11 billion a year it’s costing our economy.”
The idea was immediately panned by all the opposition parties at Queen’s Park without any of them offering up alternatives other than saying we need to build more public transit.
“This is a serious issue, gridlock, congestion, but this is not a serious proposal. This is not a serious Premier. It is a silly thought from a government that has run out of ideas,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said.
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Stiles compared Ford’s plan to Boston’s “Big Dig” which was years over deadline and significantly over budget. While the Big Dig gets its name dragged through the mud, there are other long and successful highway tunnels that could be looked at.
Norway has the Laerdal Tunnel and the Folgefonna Tunnel, Japan has the Yamate Tunnel and the Yamate Tunnel while Australia has the WestConnex around Sydney. These are all examples we could look to but Stiles and the other opposition leaders seem to want to throw up their hands and offer no solutions.
“We need to get transit built in a big way,” Stiles said.
Perhaps Stiles didn’t hear, part of the feasibility study is for a public transit component. Beyond that, the Ford government is on a major transit expansion with a new subway line in Toronto, subway extensions north of the city, the Finch LRT, taking the LRT in Mississauga out to Brampton and planning for an LRT to be built in Hamilton. If Ottawa ever has a real return-to-work plan, there will be LRT expansion there, as well.
Transit is part of the solution, but it is already being built — something needs to be done about roadways.
“I really think that this is a pipe dream of an idea,” Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said.
Crombie suggested Hwy. 407 could be used, perhaps by allowing trucks on the highway without paying tolls. That’s an idea that could help, but it is by no means the solution to what is happening on highways in and around Toronto.
The province has added more than 1.5 million people to its population over the last five years. Most of the people coming here are settling in the GTA, more people means we need more infrastructure, which includes more highways.
Crombie, like Stiles, opposes this project and they both oppose building Hwy. 413.
Along with Green Leader Mike Schreiner, they are the collective party of no. They don’t want anything built; they believe we can add massively to the population, and we can just get around with more bike lanes and subways.
That’s not realistic.
Perhaps Ford’s tunnel plan isn’t the right option — maybe there is a fatal flaw in the idea — but at least he’s coming up with possible solutions.
So, let’s study the idea before dismissing it immediately, like Stiles, Crombie and Schreiner.