Construction starts on $640M Hwy. 401 road widening project from Mississauga to Milton, Ont.

The project aims to relieve congestion on the busy highway just west of Toronto. PHOTO: Province of Ontario

Construction crews have started work on a three-year project to widen a frequently gridlocked stretch of Ontario Highway 401 between Mississauga and fast-growing Milton, Ont.

Flanked by the busy highway, Kinga Surma, the province’s associate minister of Transportation, and a number of other officials marked the start of construction during a brief ceremony Nov. 29.

“This crucial expansion of Highway 401 means that thousands of Ontarians will spend less time in traffic and more time on the things that matter to them – being with family, friends or at work,” Surma said in a release.

The province awarded the $640 million contract for the P3 project to the West Corridor Constructors consortium this April. Aecon Group Inc., Amico Infrastructures Inc. and Parsons Inc. are leading the construction phase of the work, while Parsons, Hatch and EXP are in charge of the design.

The widening project covers 18 kilometres of highway from the Credit River in Mississauga to Regional Road 25 in Milton. The expansion will add considerable capacity to the current highway, which ranges from six and eight lanes between the two cities. East to west, crews will expand the highway to a 12-lane core-collector system from the Credit River to Winston Churchill Boulevard; a 10-lane highway from Winston Churchill to the Highway 407/Highway 401 interchange; a 12-lane core-collector system from the interchange to James Snow Parkway; and a 10-lane road from James Snow Parkway to RR 25.

At peak, 200 crew are expected to be working on the stretch of highway that approximately a quarter of a million vehicles travel across each day.

Construction is scheduled to run until 2022.