Investing In Our Highways and Roads

Sunday, 31 March 2019 07:12

Oxford County will be seeing an improvement in its roads after the province has invested over $1 billion dollars into highway and road projects across Ontario.

OXFORD COUNTY - The provincial government is investing money to improve infrastructure in Ontario, including Oxford County.

The province announced in a press release on March 27th that the funding is a part of a $1.3 billion investment in highways and roads across Ontario.

Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman says the investment is good for the province, but also for Oxford County.

"I think it's a very significant announcement when we can put that much money out there to keep our roads in operating condition. Obviously, if you let that get ahead of us, it just keeps getting harder and harder to repair the road and more expensive because it has deteriorated too far. So I think it's a great help, not only for our road system but also for the people, the jobs that are going to be created in doing that work and the positive impact it'll have on economic development."

The release says the Ministry of Transportation is moving ahead with 123 rehabilitation projects across Ontario. 30 projects in Southwestern Ontario projects will tender a combined value of $195,000,000 with three highway projects in Oxford County.

Hardeman says the highways projects are a good investment for Oxford County.

"Obviously the road from Tillsonburg to Delhi is primarily in Norfolk County but obviously it is a very busy road, and one that in particular would need a lot of maintenance that has a lot of truck traffic from east to west and west to east, but there's a lot of truck traffic on that road and obviously we want to make sure it's up to a standard. And the ones that are in the riding, the portion of the 401, it's an extension of what has already been done. Obviously in that stretch is where in the past few years two new interchanges were built, and so that's just finishing up that type of area of improvement. So I think it's a very good investment and it'll help our community stay on the move."

The highway projects in Oxford County will be Highway 3 from Tillsonburg to Delhi, Highway 401 from Drumbo Road to RR 97 Cedar Creek Road and Highway 401 from Highway 19 to Sweaburg Road.