The Ministry of Transportation is once again vowing to install concrete median barriers on this stretch of the 401, but officials say it will take time. 
MPP Rick Nicholls pressed the Minister on the issue during question period at Queen’s Park this week, and says a similar promise was made in 1999.
“This government’s election had promised to widen the 401 from four lanes to six lanes between Tilbury and Lambeth wit h the addition of a concrete median barrier,” Nicholls says. “But that stretch of 117 km between those two areas remains untouched, and with the scheduled building of the Gordie Howe Bridge in Windsor, transport traffic is only going to worsen in the coming years.”
Minister of Transportation Kathryn McGarry says first, the highway will first have to be widened and undergo an environmental assessment.
“We will be building a concrete barrier, and in the meantime while we are doing the environmental assessment and doing the necessary work to widen the stretch of 401 ot add the concrete barrier, we are going further than that because I don’t want to wait for the length of time it’s going to take to make that barrier.”
McGarry says in the meantime, a temporary high-tension cable barrier will be put in place this year to minimize the number of crossovers.
However, the government couldn’t nail down an exact date for when that cable barrier would be installed.
