The Ontario government announced plans to explore whether tunnelling under a major highway, an idea Premier Doug Ford first mused about when he was a Toronto city councillor, is possible.
The government delivered the concept at a news conference near Highway 401 in Etobicoke on Wednesday morning, pledging to conduct a feasibility study of whether a new expressway could be tunnelled beneath the existing route.
“We’re experts at tunnelling,” Ford said. “And once a feasibility study comes back, then we’ll move it forward. I always believe, never take the tunnelling machines out of the ground — just keep tunnelling.”
Ford said he wanted to get a “clear understanding” of “how this tunnel” can fight gridlock, promising the potential project would not include road tolls. The premier called his tunnel project a “serious plan to get people out of gridlock,” accusing his opponents of shooting down his transportation plans.
While the feasibility study is about understanding how the project would work, Ford repeated several times Wednesday morning that they planned to build the route whatever happened. While he said that he planned to build the project regardless of what the study suggested, Ford said that details from it like cost may determine how big the project ultimately ends up being.
The initial plan, according to the premier, is to tunnel under Highway 401 the length of Toronto, from Mississauga to Scarborough.
The government did not share the cost of the feasibility study, with Ford saying it would be conducted internally and may already be underway.
The transportation minister’s office later clarified to Global News the feasibility study would be contracted out, with support offered by provincial staff. The cost — and budget — for that study are unclear, with the government suggesting the price will be determined when companies bid for the contract.
The overall cost of the plan is also a mystery — and the premier repeatedly said it would be informed by the publicly uncosted feasibility study.
Opposition parties have universally panned the plan — which they described as rushed, expensive and entirely unrealistic.
“The premier cannot dig himself out of the mess that he has created in our province — not even with a fantasy tunnel,” Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP Leader, said.
“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.”
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie called the idea a “half-baked, back-of-the-napkin scheme.”
Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the announcement was “another pet highway project” for the premier, designed to distract from the government’s stalling housing starts.
“Doug Ford will do everything possible to distract from his utter failure to address the housing crisis,” Schreiner said.
“He’ll blame people who can’t find an affordable place to live and say it’s their fault. He’ll try and ban bike lanes. And now he’s proposing a tunnel under the 401 that will cost taxpayers billions, make your commute more expensive and only make gridlock worse.”
Ford was quick to predict opposition to his plan, claiming opposition parties always say no to his ideas.
“We’re just a government of action, we’re a government that builds and we’re going to continue building,” Ford said.
Under Ford’s Progressive Conservatives, the province has pushed two priority highway projects in particular, Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass. Neither route has finished construction to open to the public and meaningful construction work is not expected to get underway for Highway 413 until next year.
Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma said the tunnel plan was a “strategic investment” as part of the government’s highway plan.
Experts have suggested the idea of either tunnelling under or building over major highways in Ontario is technically possible but logistically impractical, with prohibitive costs as the main barrier. “In a lot of Asia, they’re doing decking projects. India is doing a lot of decking. They call them flyovers,” Matti Siemiatycki, professor of geography and director of the University of Toronto’s Infrastructure Institute, previously told Global News.
“The reality is that the cost of both of those initiatives is astronomical,” he said.
“What will happen is a pattern called induced demand where ultimately, over time, you’ll end up with those additional lanes also becoming congested.”
In bygone years, when he was a city councillor, Ford pitched creative ways to make the roads bigger but not wider.
In 2012, he mused about tunnelling below the Gardiner or adding extra layers above the city’s roads.
“I’m in favour of exploring: what is the cost of tunnelling, what is the cost of putting a double-decker, a triple-decker like they have in New York?” Ford said at the time, according to the National Post.
“Let’s find out the cost.”
The government is in the process of finalizing transportation legislation that will be tabled in the fall, including rules that will restrict bike lanes. The premier has said the ideas it will bring forward are “game-changing,” while his transportation minister hinted it could involve more construction.