BY CRAIG GILBERT
Work on four-laning Highway 69 could begin this winter as a call for tenders for the first stage of the project were issued Wednesday.
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Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci, in chorus with the Crash 69 committee, was elated to spread the news that federal environmental assessments have been completed. Work on an underpass at Old Wanup Road and 700 metres of new highway will be completed in the summer of 2006.
Â?This has never happened before,Â? he said of the first project on the highway south of Sudbury since its construction. Â?Today is an historic day.Â?
But Nickel Belt MPP Shelley Martel and the NDP are Â?underwhelmedÂ? by the announcement.
Trumpeting 700 metres of highway in November 2004 when the Liberals promised an action plan on Highway 69 within six months of the Oct. 2003 election is absurd, she says.
Â?Building an underpass and a few hundred metres of road is a far cry from four-laning Highway 69,Â? she said in a release.
The local MP agrees the road is crucial to tourism, economic development and public safety.
Â?For these reasons, Rick Bartolucci and the Dalton McGuinty government must keep their commitment to modernize the road as part of the Northern Ontario Highway Strategy.Â?
Bartolucci insists the call for tenders is the first step in what will be a long journey.
Â?This is short-term action as we develop the long-term plan,Â? he said Wednesday. Â?We will have an infrastrucutre renewal plan by the end of the year, hopefully, and that will be a part of the Action Plan for Highway 69 and the Northern Ontario Highway Strategy.Â?
The contract is the first in a series to four-lane the first 20 kilometres of Highway 69 from Sudbury to Estaire.
Through the Strategic Highway Infrastructure Program (SHIP), the federal government designated $485 million for the provinces to improve and expand routes that have been designated as part of the national highway system.
OntarioÂ?s share of the federal program will be a maximum contribution of $168 million until 2008-2009.
The province must provide matching funds for qualifying SHIP projects.
