THUNDER BAY -- If all goes according to plan, new designated truck routes through the City of Thunder Bay will be in place before the end of the year.
The scheme will divert hundreds of transport trucks daily from Dawson Road and Arthur Street to Highway 11/17.
Staff in the city's Engineering and Operations division are currently preparing a report to city council that would lead to a new by-law implementing the plan.
Truckers bypassing the city will be restricted to the Thunder Bay Expressway, Highway 11/17 and Highway 61.
Truck operators making deliveries or pickups within the city will be required to remain on one of those highways as long as possible before exiting onto a city street to proceed to their destination.
Kayla Dixon, the director of Engineering and Operations, says the recommendation to move forward with the plan will go before council in about two weeks. If council approves, the draft by-law will be ready for council's vote about a month later.
The by-law would include a provision for fines for violators, but details of the fines are not yet available.
"Then there is a period when we bring that before the courts, and the fines are approved, so it would take about six months before we would actually be able to implement" the truck routes, Dixon said. "I would expect by sometime in the fall or toward the end of the year."
No further changes will be made to the routes as a result of community and stakeholder meetings that were held in February.
Dixon noted that prior to those meetings, the city had already addressed the business community's concerns about a proposed mandatory truck route network in the heart of the city by removing that part of the plan.
