OrilliaMatter welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to 'COLUMN: Proposed Hwy. 401 tunnel is a disaster in the making,' published Oct. 6 and 'Premier blasts cost to 'build a damn tunnel' in Ontario,' published Oct. 4.
The idea of tunnelling under Highway 401 for 60 kilometres does not even include cost to build connection ramps from surface down to tunnel level.
Plus you need land to build those loop ramps down. There would be limited land locations to build those access points.
Tunnels also need massive ventilation shafts with blower fans to vent out exhaust fumes; must have evacuation exits in event of accident, fire explosions etc.; and must have stormwater drainage and pumping stations installed to handle floods and groundwater infiltration.
Tunnelling a four-lane road for 60 kilometres is ridiculous and would solve nothing.
It would actually be cheaper to buy another 100-metre swath of developed residential and commercial land along the 401 to widen it versus tunnelling.
It would be more economical to tunnel another subway train, as it only requires the equivalent of two lanes. Mass transit, no matter the method chosen, is therefore more economical. They could always dedicate specific highway lanes to commercial vehicles and large trucks, similar to carpool/HOV lanes.
The Ontario government may as well bite their lower lip now and correct a massive historical mistake and buy back Highway 407 now!
The sale of the highway by a previous government for such a low-ball, undervalued price was essentially ... a rental solution with no end in sight.
Highway 413 should, in fact, extend not to Highway 401 at the 407, but farther east to Guelph and Kitchener. That would provide more bang for buck as it creates another independent and alternative parallel route east-west north of Highway 401.
Redundancy in highways or any networking design is key to operational success and efficiency. (There could be a short north-south link down to the 407/401 interchange for network connectivity.)
If Highway 413 is in fact built to Highway 400, where does it go from there? It would seem logical that it, too, would eventually extend over to Highway 404 at a minimum, again forming another part critical link of the “400-series grid roads.”
Another key place the Ontario government could get more value for tax dollars spent (and accomplish some long-term economic goals) is building a new 400-series highway parallel to the QEW from Highway 403 west of Hamilton to Highway 406 at Welland, then continue toward Buffalo, N.Y., and construct anew international border crossing similar to Gordie Howe Bridge. That would do more for the lower Ontario road network than any other project.
Eli Grisdale, P.Tech (Eng.)
Professional technologist engineer (civil transportation design)
Sherwood Park, Alta.
