Sudbury highway bypasses on hold as MTO focuses on road maintenance

Several planned highway bypasses in the Sudbury area are on hold, waiting for a greenlight from the government.

This includes a bypass of Highway 144 around Chelmsford,Highway 17 around Coniston and Wahnapitae and thefour-laning of the southwest bypass of Highway 17 between Lively and Sudbury's south end,where a teenager was killed earlier this month.

The tireless lobbying of former Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci is often credited for the decision to four-lane Highway 69, which is now underway.

But his successor, Glenn Thibeault, says he'll take his cues from Sudbury city council.

"It comes down to the city really saying 'Glenn, we want the traffic taken off of street X and put on to bypass X' and then it becomes my job to really advocate on behalf of them," he said.

The last little piece of Highway 69, from Wanup to the south end of Sudbury, is expected to remain undivided for at least 25 years. It is not considered part of the multi-billion dollar four-laning project and the Ministry of Transportation say it likely won't be four-laned until Highway 17 East is.

Thibeault said the government's focus right now is on Highway 69, and isexpected to be complete by 2021.

But after that, Temiskaming Shores mayor Carman Kidd is hoping highway planners and billions of provincial taxdollars will head north to Highway 11.

He is leading an effort calling for the road to be four-laned between North Bay and Cochrane.

"I think we got tolobby until we get it. It very well could be 10 years before the project ever gets started, but it's something we got to start," he said.

Gordan Rennie, regional issues and media advisor forthe Ministry of Transportation is quick to point out that about $500millionhas been spent improving Highway 11 over the last 12 years.

He added, however, other than the long range planning forbypasses around major population centres like Sudbury and North Bay, the government is concentrating on fixing the highways they already have.

"Our focus right now is maintaining the existing highway network," said Rennie.

Here's a look at the highways in northern Ontario that are being planned by the Ministry of Transportation.