Motorists traveling between Thunder Bay and Nipigon will see some delays as the four-laning of Highway 11/17 continues throughout the summer.
The upgrade to 100 kilometres of highway was announced in the spring of 2009 and the project began in August 2010. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation announced the completion of the first phase of the project last year in August with the announcement of the overpass and interchange between Hodder Avenue and Highway 527.
There’s four other ongoing highway expansions in the North. Wayne Prystanski, manager of operations for the Ministry of Transportation, said there will be some traffic delays this construction season.
“The grading projects that we have along the highway will reduce the traffic down to a single lane so most people driving through a construction site may see delays in the order of 15 to 20 minutes,” he said.
“We will reduce the speeds through the construction zones because they’re single lane and controlled by lights. If traffic is 90 kilometres it will be reduced down to 50. Most of our highway construction jobs the highway speeds maintained until drivers come into an area where work is being carried out.”
He said with a divided highway it will be much safer for motorists to drive on. The other benefit is the economic spin off.
He said that the Hodder Avenue project alone created hundreds of jobs.
Other projects on the go include the expansion from Highway 527 to Mackenzie Road is expected to be completed by 2015.
Another project is the 14-kilometre section of Mackenzie Road to Birch Beach, which is scheduled to be completed by August.
The final project for the expansion will be at the Nipigon River bridge.
He said they have already sent out the contract out and hope to make an announcement soon.
Although some of the projects haven’t received funding yet, Prystanski said that they should have the project completed within 10 years.
“Some of the projects are ahead of schedule and some are on,” he said. “The projects that are in place to date are in the order of $160 million and we have another $250 million committed.”
