To the editor:
That’s how many additional kilometres 1,300 cross country trucks will travel each day to transit Thunder Bay via the 16 kilometres longer Trans-Canada/Expressway versus Highway 102. If safety is the concern, one sure way to reduce accidents is to drive less, rather than 1,300 trucks/day x 16 kilmetres/truck = 20,800 kilmetres/day more.
Any trucker who takes the Trans-Canada/Expressway to transit Thunder Bay is either a rookie or lost. Dawson Road/Highway 102 (the original Dawson Trail) bypasses the city and is the more direct route. Most communities are diverting cross-country traffic to ring road routes to avoid the city, but we’re contemplating directing truck traffic right through it.
The historical reason the longer Expressway/Kakabeka route is designated as the Trans-Canada is that it touches on Thunder Bay (South) or what was the City of Fort William before amalgamation. It was assumed that Fort William would lose tourist revenue if it were bypassed.
I suggest it makes more sense to petition the government to designate Highway 102 as the Trans-Canada Highway route and improve it using the associated federal funding. The complication I see here is that funding for the proposed interchanges on the expressway is likely linked to it being designated as the Trans-Canada. With 1,300 more trucks per day we’re sure going to need them.
Let’s look to the future, and perhaps a map.
Bill King,
Thunder Bay
