RC115 NovDec 2024 - Magazine - Page 4
EDITOR’S NOTE
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 6
THE BIG DECEPTION
EDITOR
John Tenpenny
VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT AND PARTNERSHIPS
Corinne Lynds
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Charlie Evans
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Connie Vitello
ART DIRECTOR AND SENIOR DESIGNER
Gordon Alexander
CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS
Jordan Flemming, Greg Johnson,
Brendan Sigalet, Geoff Stenger,
Elena Theodoropoulos, Mark Douglas Wessel
by John Tenpenny
POLITICIANS ARE NOT KNOWN for their subtlety. They make big promises with hopes it
will sway or distract voters. And when they 昀椀xate on a certain idea, it can be hard
for them to change course. They are like a dog with a bone.
For Ontario Premier Doug Ford, tra昀케c congestion in the Greater Toronto Area
is the problem he has vowed to solve, and he’s gone all in—or out there—depending on where you stand on the issue.
The province recently announced plans to build a new driver and transit tunnel expressway under Highway 401, that potentially will extend from beyond
Brampton and Mississauga in the west to Scarborough in the east. The length
of the 401 within Toronto’s borders (between Highway 427 and Rouge Urban
National Park) is nearly 50 kilometres east to west.
According to Ford, gridlock in the Toronto-area costs the economy $11 billion
every year and projects such as the one being proposed, along with the Bradford
Bypass and Highway 413, are the only way to “get people and goods moving
across Ontario once more.”
How long and how much are questions no one can answer, including Ford.
For comparison, the Boston Central Artery Tunnel project, better known as the
Big Dig, took 16 years to complete at a cost of nearly US$15 billion to replace a
six-lane elevated expressway that ran through that city’s downtown core with an
underground 12-kilometre highway directly beneath the existing one.
Doing the math, a 50-kilometre Highway 401 tunnel could conceivably cost
upwards of US$62 billion and take 40 years! And that’s a very rough estimate.
The Boston project began in 1991 with an initial estimate of $2.6 billion, which by
the time the project was completed in 2007, grew to a whopping $14.8 billion.
Closer to reality, Ford has promised that Highway 413, the 52-kilometre highway set to run from Milton to Vaughan, will begin construction next year, at a
cost his government has so far not publicly revealed, but estimated at anywhere
from $4 to $10 billion.
With major transit projects already underway and over budget in the GTA, it
seems fair to question the logic of spending billions more of taxpayers money to
try to alleviate congestion by adding more cars that carry far fewer passengers
than subways and buses.
There is much to be done, as the government launches technical evaluations to
study the feasibility of Ford’s plan, but listening to him, the project is a done deal.
“Today’s announcement is the latest step in our nearly $100 billion plan to
tackle this gridlock,” stated Ford at the press conference.
Let’s hope saner minds prevail, and the provincial government comes back to
reality and lets go of the “bone” that is “more roads equal less congestion.”
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