City will keep investigating a mid-peninsula highway

Despite a provincial report putting it on the back burner, city councillors have agreed to push ahead with the notion of a mid-peninsula highway that would cut through Hamilton to connect Niagara to the GTA.

Members of the general issues committee voted Wednesday to work with the province on a transportation plan through the area, which could include a future superhighway.

The vote comes after a Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) report in September that bypasses the idea of a Niagara-to-Toronto highway in its latest list of recommendations to ease traffic congestion.

With Wednesdays vote, the city will work with the Ministry of Transportation Ontario on a strategic transportation plan for the area to support future planning for a highway. It is also encouraging Ontario to develop terms of reference for a corridor study.

We wont be around this table when the decision is finally made, said Coun. Brad Clark during the vote. But we should be preparing for the future.

Its the latest in a long saga of the potential superhighway. The idea was first floated by the Mike Harris government but derailed by environmental activists and the City of Burlington. An MTO study in 2001 concluded there was a need for more transportation infrastructure through the area. Several reports and studies have emphasized the need for solutions as the area grows.

The latest strategy floated by the province proposed widening the QEW to eight lanes between Niagara and Hamilton, and building a highway that would connect the QEW in Fort Erie with Highway 406 in Welland. It omits the mid-peninsula highway, which the city describes as a critical error.

Councillors passed the recommendation to work with MTO with little discussion.