34-Mile-Long Tunnel Project Could Add Even More Lanes To Widest Highway In North America

Photo: Rene Johnston/Toronto Star (Getty Images)

Ontario’s Highway 401 is the widest highway in North America, 18 lanes across at its widest point near Toronto Pearson International Airport. Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a feasibility study on Wednesday for a 34-mile tunnel underneath the 401 as it traverses Toronto in an ill-conceived effort to alleviate gridlock. Ford promised to build the tunnel regardless of the study’s outcome, because we’re just one more lane from fixing traffic.

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The 401 tunnel’s eastern end would be in Brampton or Mississauga near the airport, with the western end in Scarborough or Markham on the other side of the Canadian metropolis, according to the CBC. The tunnel would also be linking with the area’s other major highways. It would be toll-free, upholding a different promise made by Ford’s provincial government. Ford was quick to mention potential critics:

“I know this is an ambitious idea and that some people will say it can’t be done or that we shouldn’t even try. But these are the same people who oppose every project. No matter if it’s expansion of Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass, doubling the size of our subway, it’s no, no, no. Every proposal to get people out of gridlock and get our province moving, they say no.”

Ford’s support of Toronto’s subway system does come with a few caveats. The Premier has dedicated $19 billion to expansion but expressed a desire to take control of the system from Toronto. How would that go? Well, the province was given control of the system’s Yonge North extension. A Toronto Star report uncovered that a change in the extension’s route put the two new stations on land owned by Ford government backers, sheltering their surrounding luxury condo developments from billions in taxes.

Congestion in the Greater Toronto Area is out of control. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation estimates that every major highway will be at capacity within the next decade. If Ford seriously wanted to tackle the traffic, he’d propose more realistic public transit alternatives to the 401 to take commuters off the road. He mentioned that the 401 tunnel would include public transit, but it’s unclear how.