Ontario's former Transportation Minister says the provincial government should consider taking over responsibility for the E.C. Row Expressway.
Steven Del Duca is pitching the idea of uploading the cost of maintaining the four-lane highway in Windsor as part of his candidacy for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Del Duca tells AM800 News he would launch a Critical Infrastructure Ownership Plan to start discussions with municipalities about the uploading of critical highways and roads like the E.C. Row and even the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto.
"I think there is an urgent need to have a discussion around whether or not the province of Ontario is in a better position to own and as a result maintain and rehabilitate significant highway route and bridge infrastructure around the province, in particular economically critical infrastructure like potentially E.C. Row," says Del Duca. "I think that is really important."
The four-lane E. C. Row Expressway spans 15.4 kilometres from Ojibway Parkway in the west to Banwell Road in the east. It was built between 1971 and 1983, and costs the City of Windsor millions of dollars to maintain.
Del Duca tells AM800 News it would give commuters urgent relief and support communities like Windsor that have struggled to maintain critical highways, roads and bridges.
"In particular in a community like Windsor which of course is a border community, economically important for us," says Del Duca. "Obviously really proud that we helped invest as Liberals, invest in building the Herb Gray Parkway, but to me this is all part of the same discussion and I think it bears looking at and doing the analysis, and if Windsor is comfortable with it, I'd be keen to take a look at that."
The six-lane Herb Gray Parkway is an 11 kilometre, $1.4 billion project that was started in 2011 and opened to traffic in 2015.
Del Duca also tells AM800 News if elected, he would continue the work of the previous Liberal government and finish widening Highway 3 from two to four lanes.
"I will say very clearly, like I did when I was Minister of Transportation, Highway 3 does need to be four lanes," says Del Duca. "Our government, before I was Minister of Transportation, made some pretty significant progress but we didn't finish it, we didn't get that job done."
Highway 3 is currently four lanes from Windsor to the Town of Essex, but remains two lanes from Essex to Leamington and several local politicians have lobbied the province to complete the expansion.
"I am very excited and motivated to make sure we do four lane Highway 3 and we do have a conversation about uploading economically critical and strategic infrastructure potentially like E.C Row," adds Del Duca.
Stats from Essex County show ambulances responded 193 times to emergencies on Highway 3 from 2013 through 2017. There were five fatalities during that period.
Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca speaks at the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce Luncheon. November 9, 2016. (Photo by Teresinha Medeiros)
Del Duca's other ideas, released Thursday, would restore $364 million in annual transit funding that was cut by the Ford government and he is also committing to creating an Affordable Transit Action Plan that would see the provincial government move toward pricing transit on demand.
Del Duca, 46, is marking his 31 consecutive years as a card-carrying member of the Ontario Liberal Party.
He lost his seat in the Ontario legislature in the June 2018 election that brought Ford's Progressive Conservatives to power.
Details of the leadership bid are expected to be confirmed in two weeks at the June 7 annual general meeting in Toronto.