A feasibility examine to construct an specific tunnel beneath Freeway 401 may take as much as two years, World Information has discovered, because the Ford authorities prepares to tender a contract to research the potential value and viability of the undertaking.
Within the fall of 2024, Premier Doug Ford introduced his authorities would look into developing a traffic-transit tunnel beneath a 50-kilometre stretch of the congested freeway to deal with the financial value of gridlock in Toronto.
Whereas the federal government has provided few different particulars on the potential undertaking, together with estimated prices, the Progressive Conservative Social gathering dedicated to constructing the large infrastructure undertaking throughout the latest provincial election.
The small print had been included in a January 2025 doc referred to as “401 tunnel feasibility and gridlock aid plan.”
The federal government doc states that by 2051, the common drive time alongside the 401 between Freeway 427 and Freeway 404 will double from the present common of twenty-two minutes to 44 minutes. These numbers are similar to an identical evaluation from 2022.
With a purpose to ease the gridlock, engineering corporations are being requested to contemplate an east-west tunnel “from west of Freeway 410 in Mississauga to east of Scarborough,” and to find out the affect of development on the already backed-up freeway.
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Right here’s what the Ford authorities is on the lookout for:
- Evaluation of a tunneling possibility so as to add automobile and transit capability
- Consideration of different infrastructure choices, together with elevated highways and adjoining routing
- Excessive-level value estimates and financial evaluation
- Design, environmental and development concerns
The examine, in accordance with the interior doc, “is anticipated to take as much as two years.”
Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute on the College of Toronto, cautioned that the two-year examine may value tens of millions however received’t resolve the present congestion points.
“We’re speaking about congestion that’s changing into actually problematic right this moment and it’s been for a few years,” Siemiatycki mentioned. “A two-year examine to attempt to get a deal with on a 20-year undertaking isn’t bringing anybody aid instantly.
“This can be a multi-decade-long undertaking,” Siemiatycki added. “Once we’re speaking about constructing a freeway of this scale, and that may result in elevated visitors and finally not resolve the issue over the long run, there are questions.”
The planning doc additionally reveals that the province is hedging its bets towards what Premier Ford has acknowledged is an “formidable undertaking.”
The interior authorities presentation states that whereas there are “few alternatives to broaden freeway capability with out endeavor main tunnel or fly-over infrastructure choices,” the feasibility examine will even have a look at various routes and different modes of journey.
Corporations are being requested to conduct a complete evaluation of “different automobile and transit capability choices” and to additionally establish different “complementary congestion aid choices.”
Shoshana Saxe, an affiliate professor of civil engineering on the College of Toronto, applauded the give attention to a various vary of choices however added that the Premier’s most well-liked possibility “could be very costly and really sluggish.”
“Technically, it’s doable. We are able to construct very, very huge tunnels, but it surely’s not going to work or ship whereas we’re nonetheless in our working careers,” Saxe added.
Saxe mentioned the feasibility examine may lead to visitors diversion strategies, together with devoted high-occupancy automobile or devoted transit lanes of provide different solutions to scale back the variety of autos on the 401.
“I feel the query is how do consultants reply this, what sort of recommendation do engineering corporations give, and the way open is the federal government finally to listening to these totally different concepts, even when they find yourself being a little bit totally different than what the Premier has mentioned to date,” Saxe mentioned.
The reply may lie within the doc itself, which states the aim of the request-for-proposal on the 401 tunnel as: “To ship on the specified outcomes outlined by the Premier.”
© 2025 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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