A local highway safety advocate is cautiously optimistic about the province’s plan to beef up transportation across southwestern Ontario.
The minister in charge of the plan revealed five key goals, including making the 401 wider and safer by adding a concrete barrier.
Chatham’s Alysson Storey says she wants to speak with Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney about expediting the process as much as possible.
“There’s a lot of approval processes that need to be in place in order to move these forward, but she has the authority to actually move these along quicker or eliminate them altogether,” Storey says. “They’ve done it before for big projects, so we’d like her to consider looking at the different stages and what can be accelerated.”
Storey says the next step is to re-engage with politicians on all levels, although to this point she’s had no luck in getting in touch with Minister Mulroney.
“We don’t need to see many more plans on this issue, we know what needs to be done, we know how to do it, we’ve just done it to the west of us (on Highway 401 in Essex County,)” Storey says. “The time for planning has passed, we’ve been there and done that, it’s time for action.”
