Inside Caledon, Ontario

The long awaited extension of Highway 427 which will take it north to Major Mackenzie Drive and a lot closer to the Bolton and Caledon area looks to be finally moving forward with a construction start date slated for 2016-2017. As I have written previously about this (original article & second update), this project has moved forward at a very slow pace, so much so that the municipalities accelerated the widening of Highway 50 to six lanes from Hwy 7 to Mayfield Rd to handle the increased growing traffic in the near term. Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the project was moving forward back in 2013 but there was no certainty due to a minority government and then a defeated budget in 2014 which triggered the provincial elections. With a new majority government the Premier tabled the budget again which confirmed the Highway 427 Expansion / Extension to start in 2016-2017. According to the official Ontario Budget notes, "The Ministry of Transportation has completed the preliminary design and received environmental assessment clearance for the project, and is moving forward as quickly as possible with obtaining the required property and making arrangements for utility relocations." The extension will consist of three new interchanges at Langstaff Road and Rutherford Road as well as Major Mackenzie Drive, nine bridges and protection for a future transit way and transit stations along the west side of the highway. The current terminus at Zenway Blvd. will be removed with Langstaff being the first new exit of the extension. To view a detailed high resolution PDF map of the planned extension, click here. The cost of the Highway 427 expansion will be upwards of $500 million and will take approximately three years to complete and hopefully barring any further delays open sometime in 2020.