Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been unequivocal about his plans for a tunnel under Highway 401 — but as his government moves forward on the idea, it’s planning for the possibility that it might not be feasible at all.
When Ford first announced the tunnel last September, he cast it as a certainty, saying, “I'll tell you one thing: we're getting this tunnel built.”
The Progressive Conservative party also recommitted to building it in their recent election platform.
However, the province issued a request for proposals (RFP) this week, seeking specialized consultants to undertake a “Highway 401 Tunnel Feasibility and Congestion Relief Study” to determine the feasibility of a tunnel — and other options — to expand the capacity of the 401 and mitigate congestion.
The RFP lays out a detailed structure for the study and acknowledges that the tunnel Ford has described and other ways of adding new lanes, such as a new elevated highway, may not be feasible.
It may be, according to the document, that the only feasible ways to tackle congestion don’t involve adding extra lanes to the highway. The RFP offers examples such as adding express bus service or managing the demand and flow of traffic on the highway through techniques such as ramp metering, which stops traffic at on-ramps to time and control vehicles’ entry to the highway so that traffic moves more smoothly, or managed lanes such as high-occupancy toll lanes.
The RFP dubs the tunnel and other similar infrastructure “capacity expansion options,” and the latter options that don’t add extra lanes “congestion management options.”
It asks the consultants to study both and proceed with a recommendation for a capacity expansion option and complementary congestion management options that can start while construction is ongoing. Or, if the consultants find that no “capacity expansion options” — including a tunnel — are feasible, they should recommend a plan to proceed with congestion management options only.
This is a good sign, according to Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute and a professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, who has criticized Ford’s tunnel plans as “financially reckless and ineffective.”
“On its face, this is an RFP that doesn't have a prescribed outcome. And I think that’s important,” he said.
“The way the RFP is drafted, it does put those other options on the table explicitly. It doesn't just say, 'We're only studying one option and it's this way or nothing' — so I think that actually, that's a good way to proceed.”
Asked if the possibility expressed in the RFP that the tunnel may not be feasible reflects the government’s decision, a spokesperson for the Transportation minister did not directly answer.
“Ontario's population is growing at unprecedented speeds and we need our critical infrastructure to keep up so people can get where they need to go, when they need to get there,” said Dakota Brasier, spokesperson for Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, in an email.
“That’s why we are investing $70 billion in public transit and $28 billion in highways to build a modern and integrated transportation network.”
However, she did rule out adding tolling to the highway — a strategy for managing congestion that is not ruled out in the RFP. The document includes some strategies that involve tolls — high occupancy toll lanes and dynamic managed lanes — as possibilities for the consultants to study.
“Now more than ever during these unprecedented times, we need to continue to make life more affordable and help keep costs down for the people of Ontario,” said Brasier. “Unlike the Liberals, we will never add a tax or toll to any road in Ontario.”
There is no potential timeline for the project, nor a project cost, though the feasibility study is to provide feedback on both.
