Plans to expand Highway 401 to six lanes from the west end of Belleville to several kilometres east of the city is welcome news to drivers like Sonya Rombough.
“From Coburg to Kingston in the winter time, we have major accidents here every year,” she says.
Sonya’s daughter Denise agrees. She says she used to spend a lot of time on the 401 commuting for work from Trenton to Oddessa.
“The amount of accidents and people killed between here and Kingston is ridiculous,” Denise said.
It will be well over a year before the highway work around Belleville begins.
The Ministry of Transportation’s project manager Glenn Higgins says a public meeting for input on the design is set for Dec. 14.
“We’re hoping to come back again in the summer of 2018 with a second centre to share the results of what we’ve discovered and ultimately to have the preliminary design finished by the end of 2018,” Higgins said.
Since May, 12 people have been killed on the 401 between Trenton and Cornwall, including two people in a collision near Prescott, a little under two weeks ago.
Prescott’s Mayor Brett Todd says six lanes from Cobourg to the Quebec border is needed to deal with the amount of traffic now on the 401.
“Myself, along with my colleagues with the Eastern Ontario Mayors’ Caucus, are working on lobbying for that with the province,” said Todd. “We know it’s not going to happen overnight but we need to see some real planning so we can make it happen sooner rather than later.”
Last March, the 401 was closed for 30 hours when dozens of vehicles were involved in two collisions.
One man died, almost 30 people were taken to hospital, and thousands of litres of a toxic chemical were spilled.
A number of opposition MPPs, including Prince Edward-Hastings’ Todd Smith, have joined Eastern Ontario mayors calling on the province to widen the highway.
“We have multi-vehicle pileups every winter — this is something that could be alleviated by widening the highways to six lanes.”
Todd says with the volume of traffic on the 401, the highway should be six lanes from Cobourg to the Quebec border.
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