The Ontario government has introduced legislation to accelerate the widening of Highway 69 between Parry Sound and Sudbury. If passed, the Building Highway 69 Faster Act will allow the province to finish the widening project up to five years ahead of schedule by establishing a project-specific environmental assessment framework built on the environmental work already completed. This would allow eligible work to proceed sooner, while maintaining environmental oversight and fulfilling the province’s duty to consult with Indigenous communities.
The proposed changes, which are similar to the measures introduced to speed up construction of Highway 413, are part of the government’s plan to improve highway safety in northern Ontario and support economic growth in the region.
To date, Ontario has twinned 84 kilometres of the 152 km corridor (67 km running south from Sudbury and 17 km running north from Parry Sound). The remaining 68-kilometre bottleneck will be delivered across six specific construction sections, with four expected to be under active construction by the end of 2027:
As part of Section 6 infrastructure work, Ontario is funding the complex relocation of a main Canadian National Railway (CN) track segment and building new bridge structures near the French River and Key River sectors.
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