Opposition growing against Maley Drive extension

As Sudbury city council gets ready to vote whether or not to support the extension of Maley Drive, some citizens in the community are speaking up in opposition.

People in Sudbury have until Friday to voice their opinions about the proposed Maley Drive extension.

A Sudbury blogger has written an open letter opposing the project. Matthew Bleach said the money that would be used for the project should be spent on repairing existing infrastructure.

"Everywhere you look in this city there are roads crumbling," he said.

"We have water mains that are leaking [and] water mains that are bursting all over the place. $200 million would go a very, very long way to fixing our current infrastructure problems."

Bleach is part of a Facebook group of more than 400 people, urging city councillors not to support the project.

"[City council] needs to vote no," he said.

"It's just wrong on so many levels, and they need to listen to the voices of the people."

'Makes sense' to support the project: councillor

City councillor Mike Jakubo said the city already services its infrastructure at a consistent level, and added the funding allocated to the project from other levels of government couldn't be used for anything else.

"We've got a great opportunity here," he said. "We're really excited to see this project come to fruition."

Another city councillor said he thinks it's time for the project to move forward.

"If we don't find a way of reducing truck traffic on Lasalle and the route through the valley, the $27 million that we have to put out for Maley Drive is going to seem pale in comparison to the repairs we're going to do over the next 20 years on the roads that are being torn apart now," Robert Kirwan said.

"So just from a financial perspective, it makes financial sense to build Maley Drive."

Sudbury mayor Brian Bigger is urging councillors to support the Maley Drive extension. If councillors do support it, the next step will be to get funding from the federal government.