Work will begin in February on major infrastructure work in East Windsor.
The city received $18.8-million in provincial funding to widen Banwell Road, extend Wyandotte Street East, and undertake improvements at the Banwell Road-McNorton Street intersection.
That's on top of $50-million to build a new interchange at Banwell and the E.C. Row Expressway.
The upgrades are needed to help accommodate traffic flow once the NextStar Energy electric vehicle battery plant becomes fully operational.
The city is seeing between 10,000-14,000 vehicle a day travelling through the corridor but when the EV battery plant opens, that's expected to surge to 25,000.
Tree and brush clearing will begin in February before birds start nesting, shovels are expected to be in the ground in March or April and construction will last all of 2025, 2026 and there will be final road paving in 2027.
Executive Director of Engineering Stacey McGuire says most of the work will happen off road, but there will be intermittent closures. "The interchange itself at Banwell and EC Row is going to be east of the existing intersection so a lot of that work during construction can take place off to the side. The intention is to keep Banwell Road and EC Row open the majority of the time."
McGuire says approvals have been granted for 3,030 housing units in that area. "The impact of those on the existing road network are huge. We've never seen intensification to this degree before or happen this fast so these improvements and opening up Wyandotte, the minor improvements at the intersection, coupled with the bigger works that we're doing at Banwell are going to improve the traffic and transportation flow in all of the east end of the city", she says.
The city has approved 13 rezoning applications for high rise developments which McGuire says will put tremendous strain on the road network so the improvements will be needed.
She adds there will be short duration closures of EC Row at Banwell when the watermain is installed.