Highway 3 Expansion Still Two Years Away: AMO

The warden of Essex County and some local mayors took advantage of their trip to an Ottawa conference to push for a widening of Highway 3.

Warden Tom Bain and other local officials had a sitdown with Ontario's transportation minister Monday morning at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario or AMO.

During the provincial campaign in May, Doug Ford promised to make Highway 3 through the County a priority.

He told a crowd during a stop in Essex County that his party is 100 percent committed to expanding Highway 3, "not a year down the road, but immediately."

Warden Tom Bain says their talk today was encouraging even though the timelines have changed.

"We heard comments such as 'it is a priority highway for us' and words such as 'we are on it'," he says. "However they mention that it could be as much as two years before things start to move on it."

Bain and local officials made sure they had new up-to-date data on collisions along the Highway 3 stretch that remains a two-lane highway.

He admits the sitdown contained mixed messages.

"You hear those words that are very encouraging that they're going to go ahead with fixing these highways and moving to four lanes, then on the other hand you hear about how tight the budget is and there's not a lot of money sitting there," he adds. "So in essence you really get a mixed message.

Premier Doug Ford, in a speech to the AMO conference today, emphasized the need for infrastructure work on Ontario highways.