Huge Highway 69 project linking Sudbury and Toronto announced
Greater Sudbury is at the center of the largest infrastructure project ever awarded in Ontario as Sudbury Liberal MPP Glenn Thibeault announced on Monday morning the Highway 69 project. The project will involve the four-laning of 14 kilometers of Highway 69 from north of Highway 607 to North of Highway 522, the work is budgeted for $173.4 million.
The project will be the largest infrastructure operation ever seen in the province and will involve the construction of 10 bridges and two exchanges, including four major structures over the Pickerel and French rivers. J & P Leveque Brothers Haulage Ltd. of Bancroft will helm the project and will take five years to complete the work.
Another project linking Highways 64 and 607 will open later in 2016 and it will eventually be linked to the completed Highway 69 project announced today. The idea is to create a four lane ribbon of road that will connect Greater Sudbury with Toronto, and Thibeault said at the OPP headquarters that negotiations to complete other sections of the route are still ongoing. After the completion of this project there will still be 68 kilometers of Highway 69 that need to be expanded to four lane roads.
“We’re getting closer and closer, each and every day, every time a shovel goes in the ground,” said Thibeault.
The Highway 69 project announced on Monday will begin this winter, with workers clearing land in preparation for construction to start in the spring. The provincial government promised to complete the entire Highway 69 route between Sudbury and Toronto by 2021 and says it remains on course to meet its deadline.
