Province Gives Expansion Of Niagara’s 406 Highway A Sixty-Two Million Dollar Green Light

By Doug Draper

Niagara’s regional government had a good day this Friday, August 19 when it comes to one of the things on its wish list with the province.

The regional government has been pushing for the expansion of Highway 406 to four lanes and further south, and this August 19 it received news that the province will come through with another $62 million, carrying the four lanes of this mid-peninsula highway right up to Welland’s main street and the Welland Canal tunnel.

“It is wonderful to finally get that push forward,” said Niagara regional chair Gary Burroughs in an interview with Niagara At Large. “This is huge (and) it helps open up the southern end of our region.”
Burroughs said he was also please to see Rankin Construction, a Niagara-based contractor win the bid for the 406 expansion, because it means a local firm doing the work with (according to provincial figures) 725 people continuing to make a living off this job.

Jim Bradley, a St. Catharines MPP for the Liberal government and former transportation minister, said “the Highway 406 improvements will complete an essential link in the Niagara Region, designed to improve the daily commute for thousands of residents, stimulate and support businesses, by creating a more direct route for goods and improve travel time for visitors to Niagara. … This project helps ensure economic development and growth in the Niagara region.”

It also extends the four-lane portion of Highway 406 more than seven kilometres from Port Robinson Road in Thorold to East Main Street in Welland, and builds a new bridge for this expansion over the old Welland Canal.

There are some who see even this highway extension as a concession to cars and trucks, but there are others who see it as a reasonable alternative to building a new ‘Mid-Peninsula Highway, at a cost of more than a billion and a half dollars, from the Hamilton-Burlington area through rural West Lincoln, Pelham, Welland and Fort Erie to the QEW and the Peace Bridge.

In other words, if we have to expand highways, which ones should it be – a new highway through farming and other rural lands in Niagara or an expansion of the already there Highway 406?

Tim Hudak, leader of the province’s Conservative opposition party, vows that if he wins in this October 6 Ontario election, he will move forward with plans for the mid-peninsula highway.

(We encourage you to share your views on this story in the comment boxes below and to encourage your friends and associates to join the growing number of readers regularly visiting Niagara At Large as an independent source of news and commentary in our greater Niagara region.)