Town of Collingwood, Ontario, Canada

The Ministry of Transportation has published an updated design for the highway 26 realignment project that will some day replace the present two-lane highway that runs from Stayner to Collingwood. The Ministry of Transportation recently held a public information meeting at the Manito Shrine Club just east of Collingwood and close to where the new highway will be. The MTO could open the bidding process this fall with work beginning as early as the spring. With this timetable in place, the earliest completion date estimated to be 2012.

The revised design would introduce roundabouts and will allow for the safe crossing of wildlife.

We've had our hopes raised that work on the the highway 26 realignment project would get underway before. Simcoe-Grey MPP Jim Wilson has been critical of the provincial Liberal government on the matter, as indicated in this previous news article:

Simcoe-Grey MPP Jim Wilson introduced a motion in the Ontario Legislature on Monday June 4th, 2007 calling upon the McGuinty Government to complete the re-development of Highway 26 from Stayner to Collingwood this summer.

"Enough is enough," said Wilson following a tragic car accident that took place on June 4, 2007 on Highway 26 at Poplar Sideroad - the second automobile accident at that location in a two week period. "It's time to put shovels into the ground and stop the excuses and empty promises."

In 1987 there was an average of 15,300 cars travelling the old stretch of Highway 26 each day during the summer months. In 2000 that number grew to 18,700 cars per day and it is estimated that nearly 32,000 cars travel on that same stretch today. Roughly 815 accidents have occurred on the highway during the same period of time with several of them being fatal.

Wilson got the project started back in 2000 when the previous Progressive Conservative government approved the project, acquired the land and confirmed the engineering required to begin construction. Shovels were in the ground and bulldozers were on the site until the new McGuinty government pulled the construction crews off the site in the summer of 2004.

Since then Wilson has raised the issue of the Liberal decision to cancel the project 47 times in the Ontario Legislature. He began a postcard and petition campaign that saw more than 4,500 signatures from area residents along with letters of support from local councils.

"We would have been driving on the new highway today had Dalton McGuinty not cancelled the project," said Wilson. "After nearly four years in office it appears as though the only thing that will change the current status of Highway 26 is a change in government."