The premier forged the expressway as an election concern, saying solely his authorities will ‘get it performed’
EDITOR’S NOTE: This text initially appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media web site dedicated to masking provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Premier Doug Ford promised Wednesday to construct a tunnelled expressway below the 401 and introduced his authorities has begun learning the feasibility of the plan.
He cited the area’s rising gridlock — saying authorities figures present journey occasions throughout Freeway 401 are anticipated to double by 2051, and the variety of hours Ontarians lose to site visitors will greater than triple.
“We need to keep building,” stated Ford. “That is why at the moment I am saying that our authorities is exploring the feasibility of a tunnel below the Freeway 401. This tunnel would function a brand new expressway for each automobiles and transit from Brampton and Mississauga within the west to Markham and Scarborough within the east, connecting with main roads and highways alongside the way in which.”
However the premier promised greater than only a feasibility examine.
In his remarks to reporters, he forged the tunnel as a certainty, saying, “I’ll tell you one thing: we’re getting this tunnel built.”
The size of the tunnel — and the prices — can be decided by the feasibility examine, he stated. He dominated out tolling the brand new freeway.
Requested if he can be clear with Ontarians about the price of the tunnel, the premier replied, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
The Ford authorities, nevertheless, has not launched the anticipated prices of different main freeway initiatives, together with the controversial Freeway 413.
Requested if he would now launch the projected price of that venture, he promised to present an actual determine. Nonetheless, after the press convention, his spokesperson declined to take action, citing the continuing procurement course of.
Ford didn’t give a timeline for the completion of the feasibility examine or for the freeway — although his political rivals warned it could take many years to construct.
Ford additionally predicted that these rivals — Liberal Chief Bonnie Crombie specifically — would oppose the venture, and stated solely his authorities will “get it performed.”
“I know this is an ambitious idea and that some people will say it can’t be done or that we shouldn’t even try — but these are the same people who oppose every project,” he stated, citing the 413 venture, the Bradford Bypass and subway initiatives.
“It’s ‘No, no, no,’” he continued. “Every proposal to get people out of gridlock and get our province moving, they say ‘no,’ friends. That includes Bonnie Crombie. She’s opposed to everything we’ve done to make life cheaper and easier for drivers.”
Each Crombie and NDP Chief Marit Stiles rapidly criticized the venture.
“The real question today is which of Doug’s rich buddies would benefit from this? Who has he made promises to?” Crombie posted on X. “Because Ontario needs real solutions. Not a half-baked, back-of-the-napkin scheme to funnel tens of billions of your tax dollars to Doug Ford’s cronies.”
Stiles stated it could price billions and trigger years of chaos, inflicting no actual enhancements to congestion. She added that the province ought to construct higher transit options as a substitute.
“The premier cannot dig himself out of the mess that he has created in our province, not even with a fantasy tunnel,” Stiles stated. “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.”
One other of the tunnel’s naysayers is Prof. Steven Farber, a transportation geographer on the College of Toronto, who stated the associated fee will probably be “outrageous” and the environmental affect “astoundingly bad.”
“It’s probably the worst idea in transportation I’ve heard coming out of this government — and there’s been a lot of them,” Farber stated.
Constructing further freeway lanes has been proven to not remedy gridlock, he stated, including that he doubts that any transportation planner would endorse the venture.
“That tunnel is going to be just as full as every other highway in the region,” he stated.
These automobiles, Farber added, may also find yourself caught in site visitors as soon as they go away it, including to congestion on metropolis streets.
The environmental affect will probably be so excessive due to the quantity of cement required to provide it, in addition to the emissions of the autos that will use it, he stated.
“Going underground in a tunnel is just absolutely absurd,” Farber stated. “All of that money should be going to building transit infrastructure and providing alternatives to folks who need to drive.”
Ford stated the tunnel would come with house for transit in addition to automobiles.
“Would not or not it’s nice if we had tunnels going each side, within the center, we now have transit? It would be spectacular,” he stated.
The prices of tunnel initiatives fluctuate dramatically based mostly on the dimensions of the tunnel, the jurisdiction it’s inbuilt, the complexity of the bottom the place it is constructed and the small print of the venture.
As an illustration, a kilometre of subway tunnelling in New York price greater than $2 billion CAD per kilometre, whereas different tunnelled transit initiatives in India, China, Southeast Asia price a tenth of that.
Ford spoke of a spread of 30 to 70 kilometres for the tunnel, however prompt it might be inbuilt phases.
Shoshanna Saxe, Canada Analysis Chair in sustainable infrastructure and an affiliate engineering professor on the College of Toronto, stated that whereas Toronto’s latest transit tunnelling venture prices are doubtless nearer to New York’s than the low finish, this venture can be completely different.
“To be fair tunnelling under a live highway would be hard and expensive, maybe not as hard and expensive as tunnelling under downtown, but seriously non-trivial,” Saxe stated in an e mail. “Tunnels can’t be dug for miles and miles at a time without disturbing the surface. You need air and ways to get the soil out. Also the surface will sink some above the tunnel. For any structure on top (interchange bridge for example, road surface) you have to be very careful about how much.”
The Ford authorities centered its final election marketing campaign on constructing Freeway 413. It will stretch from the western fringe of Mississauga, the place the 407 ETR meets the 401, then curve round Brampton, and attain the 400 on the northern fringe of Vaughan.
Whereas the opposition events oppose the 413 venture due to its price and environmental impacts, Ford and his ministers have continuously touted it as obligatory for preventing gridlock, utilizing the identical site visitors modelling statistics that the premier employed in his tunnelled expressway announcement.
Final month, The Trillium reported, based mostly on inside authorities paperwork, that the 413 isn’t anticipated to alleviate the area’s crushing gridlock.
The paperwork present authorities modelling predicts extremely gradual typical commute speeds — within the teenagers, 20s, 30s, and 40s km/hr vary on 400-series highways — to and from Toronto throughout peak journey occasions in 2041, whether or not the 413 has 4, six, or eight lanes, and whether or not or not the Ministry of Transportation’s different potential initiatives are accomplished.
The 407, nevertheless, is the exception, with congestion-free journey predicted as a result of freeway’s excessive tolls. Ontario’s opposition events have urged the Ford authorities to take away the 407 tolls for vans and breaking the lease with its non-public operators to take action.
Ford has not dominated out calling an election earlier than the spring 2026 mounted election date and declined to take action once more on Wednesday.
