Highway 401 tunnel and other priority projects will fight gridlock, improve economic competitiveness and create new jobs and opportunities for Ontario workers
Scarborough, February 7, 2025 — Today, Ontario PC leader Doug Ford announced that a re-elected PC government will fight gridlock, improve economic competitiveness and create new jobs for workers by tunnelling under Highway 401 to build a new driver and transit expressway. As part of the $15 billion in new infrastructure investments to keep people working, a re-elected PC government will also invest more to speed up new transportation infrastructure projects for the region.
The Highway 401 tunnel expressway will include both vehicle and transit lanes and will extend beyond Brampton and Mississauga in the west to beyond Markham and Scarborough in the east. It will be one of the largest, most ambitious infrastructure projects in the world.
“With the threat of tariffs hanging over our economy, it’s never been more important to do everything we can to improve Ontario’s economic competitiveness and create new jobs and opportunities for workers,” said Doug Ford. “Our PC team is the only party with a serious, long-term plan to get shovels in the ground to build the roads and highways that will get Ontario drivers moving again. A new expressway under Highway 401 will be a gamechanger for our province, securing good-paying jobs for thousands of Ontario workers and adding billions back into our economy as we fight gridlock on our most congested highway. While Bonnie Crombie wants to rip up our plan to build, including both the 401 tunnel expressway and Highway 413, a re-elected PC government will get these projects done.”
Gridlock in Ontario costs the province’s economy $56.4 billion every year. Without more transportation infrastructure, Ontario Ministry of Transportation modelling shows that by 2051, travel times on the main stretch of Highway 401 will double with travel time increasing by 90 minutes on the 401 through the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). This same modelling shows that all of the province’s 400-series highways in the GTHA, including Highway 407, will be at or exceed capacity within the next decade.
The only way to effectively address the resulting gridlock is to build new roads and highways, including the Highway 401 tunnel expressway, Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, as well as delivering on the PCs’ plan to build transit projects like the Ontario Line, the Hazel McCallion LRT, the Yonge North, Scarborough and Eglinton West extensions, the Hamilton LRT and expanded GO service across the region.
A re-elected Ontario PC government would also invest $22 billion more to enhance its plan to build, including $15 billion for priority transportation infrastructure projects to keep workers impacted by President Trump’s tariff threats on the job. These projects include:
- Moving up the Sheppard East subway extension to connect the TTC’s Line 4 with the Scarborough Subway Extension at Sheppard Ave. East and McCowan Road.
- Rehabilitating Highway 401’s eastbound core and collector lanes from Victoria Park Avenue to Neilson Road, including adding an additional lane at the Kennedy Road interchange.
- Rehabilitating Highway 401’s eastbound express lanes from Avenue Road to Ward Avenue, including bridge replacements at the Leslie Street and Bayview Avenue interchanges.
Only Doug Ford has a plan to protect Ontario:
- Building Ontario’s economy by investing more than $200 billion in our plan to build roads, highways, transit and other infrastructure projects while investing over $2.5 billion to train more than one million people for better jobs and bigger paycheques in the skilled trades.
- Protecting workers in the face of President Trump’s tariffs by doing whatever is necessary to protect people’s livelihoods, including by investing tens of billions of dollars to keep people working.
- Keeping us competitive by fighting the job-killing Liberal carbon tax and urging the federal government to cut red tape and streamline approvals to get big things built.
- Cleaning up our streets by protecting families and children by banning drug injection sites near schools and daycares and clearing out encampments from public parks with new investments in shelters.
- Delivering better care, including by investing $1.8 billion more to connect everyone in Ontario to a family doctor and primary care.
Doug Ford will never stop working to protect Ontario.
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