The Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) is teaming up with the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) and the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) to raise the safety issues of Highways 11 and 17 with higher levels of government.
The three groups are announcing a partnership around their collective goal of advocating for an improved east-west corridor.
Together they are calling on the federal and provincial governments to speed up the process of upgrading the highways with increased investment into the project.
“With momentum building, now is the time for governments to work together and move practical improvements forward,” says Dave Plourde, President of FONOM.
The three organizations are echoing other voices, such as those of the Ontario NDP, to treat improvements to Highways 11 and 17 as a nation-building project of national importance that recognizes the role of the highway in moving goods and people across the country.
Rick Dumas, President of NOMA, describes Highways 11 and 17 as “more than just roads; they are lifelines that connect Northern Ontario to the rest of the country.”
Large parts of the highways are still only two-lane, and many sections even lack shoulders for vehicles to pull over or be safely passed.
The movement to twin the highways around northern Ontario has been in the works for decades, but development has moved at a snail’s pace.
Over time, the movement to improve the northern highways has embraced a wider toolbox of solutions, such as “two-plus-one” roads, which alternate between two and one lane in each direction every couple of kilometres in places where there is no room for four lanes, medians to separate and protect vehicles from oncoming traffic, and warning signals ahead of traffic lights to alert large trucks, which are slow to brake, of upcoming red lights.
