By Doug Draper
Driving the QEW highway between the New York border and Toronto area is no fun at the best of times.
The crash mess on the Burlington, Ontario skyway bridge.
You can some up the all kinds of words and phrases to describe a drive on the QEW, to and from Toronto, at the best of times. ‘Gridlock’ and ‘white-knuckle driving’ come immediately to mind. But this long August 2nd to 4th long weekend it is bound to be even more of a mess with four full lanes of the Burlington Skyway shut down.
This August 1st, a guy driving a dump truck, who has since been charged with impaired driving, went wipping up the Burlington Skyway bridge with the back bucket of his truck up and seriously damaged some of the steel structure on the bridge. By all accounts, movement on the QEW anywhere near the bridge has been hell for drivers since.
Reportedly, this mess is also not going to be fixed over the weekend. So please be advised that you have been fore-warned. Of course, it is your own trip back and forth between the U.S. border and Toronto, if you can make it.
Might be a good time to finally consider leaving the car home and using the Go Train or other non-highway transit.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
As most readers of NAL know I am a retired MTO employee. As their media spokesman, I was heavily involved in both the Mid-Peninsula Highway study and the later Niagara-GTA study. I fully agreed with and support the findings of the study — that a Mid-Peninsula highway is NOT needed in the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, some people are already using the closure of the Burlington Skyway Toronto-bound lanes as a reason to go ahead with building another highway.
I strongly urge thinking people to not fall into the trap of thinking that another highway is going to solve southern Ontario’s transportation problems.
The QEW closure at the Burlington Skyway is a unique and unprecedented
event. The driver of the truck involved has been charged with impaired driving and with driving with a blood alcohol level of over .08%. Going on the assumption that where there is smoke, there is fire, I will venture to say the fact he had been drinking was the major factor in creating the chaos.
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