Breadcrumb Trail Links
NewsOntarioToronto & GTA
WSP Canada Inc. recently awarded contract with province spending $9.1 million for feasibility study on project
Article content
The Doug Ford government continues to dig in on its plan to build a Hwy. 401 tunnel in the Greater Toronto Area.
Advertisement 2
Article content
The province has earmarked $9.1 million for a feasibility study on the project, according to The Canadian Press, with a spokesperson for the transportation minister saying WSP Canada Inc. was recently awarded a contract.
Article content
Article content
The announcement came after a request for proposals was issued in the spring.
“Our government is making significant progress on the transformational project to build a tunnel under Hwy. 401 that will get people and goods moving across the province faster,” Dakota Brasier, a spokesperson for Prabmeet Sarkaria, told CP.
News of the contract arrived after Premier Ford insisted this summer that his government was going full throttle on a plan to build the tunnel, which would be about 20 metres wide and contain three levels — one for eastbound traffic, one for westbound traffic and one reserved for transit.
Your Midday Sun
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
Premier vows project ‘going to move forward’
The premier said during an August news conference in Thornhill that traffic on the GTA’s 400-series highways is reaching a breaking point and the province was not going to sit by and let that happen without action.
“We’re going to move forward on that — safety is No. 1 — I’ve been talking about this tunnel since 2018, but now we’re going to make sure we do testing all along the highway,” Ford said.
The province looked into the project as early as 2019, Global News and CBC reported, but shelved the study just two years later after determining the risk of a collapse was too great. The 2021 assessment, Global reported, concluded that tunnelling under such a busy roadway would pose undue risks to public safety.
Advertisement 4
Article content
Nonetheless, Ford has been keen on pressing forward with the project after it was formally revived in September 2024.
“If they can tunnel under the English Channel, if they can tunnel through mountains and every other place, we sure the heck can tunnel,” the premier said in August.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
Play Video
Pitched as nation-building project
The premier has also urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to designate his proposed tunnel as a nation-building project, saying it is needed to reduce gridlock and boost economic productivity.
But critics have called the idea a fantasy.
“I don’t know how they sleep at night,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Thursday of the Progressive Conservatives. “I’ll just say it … I think very few people really believe this is a real thing.”
Advertisement 5
Article content
Ford previously said the feasibility study would look at how — not if — the tunnel could be built, but the request for proposals contemplates the possibility of a tunnel not being possible.
The RFP sought a study to determine the feasibility of a tunnel and several other options including an elevated highway, adding more lanes and having truck-only lanes.
“If no capacity expansion option is determined to be feasible, then congestion mitigation options are to be identified as alternative to expansion,” the request told prospective proponents.
— With files from The Canadian Press.
Read More
LILLEY: Toronto underserved by highways, Ford says all options open
Ontario considering buying back Hwy. 407, premier says
Article content
Share this article in your social network
