Hwy. 3 sign in Leamington. Photo taken January 26, 2014. (Ricardo Veneza)Hwy. 3 sign in Leamington. Photo taken January 26, 2014. (Ricardo Veneza)
Windsor

Essex County Officials Lobby For Hwy. 3 Widening

A group of Essex County mayors is calling for Hwy. 3 to be widened sooner rather than later.

A delegation of county officials is in Ottawa this week for the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) Conference. They are asking Ontario transportation minister John Yakabuski to expedite the process of widening the highway in Essex County.

Leading the delegation is Essex County Warden and Lakeshore Mayor Tom Bain. He wants the PC-majority government to come through with its campaign promise to improve Hwy. 3.

"We impressed upon the minister how important this increasingly busy stretch of road is for commuters and our expanding industrial, commercial and agricultural commerce," says Bain. "Premier Doug Ford promised during the election campaign to fix the highway immediately, and we want to do everything we can to share information and help his government expedite that process."

Bain is not the only local politician to demand that the government widen the highway. Essex MPP Taras Natyshak had expressed similar concern after a multi-vehicle crash took place on Hwy. 3 in Kingsville in late June.

Essex County CAO Robert Maisonville points out that the highway has been getting more dangerous in recent years. Nine fatal collisions have been reported since 1993 between County Rd. 8 and Hwy. 77.

"It's not just the rising volume of crashes, it's also the severity, with 60% of Essex-Windsor EMS calls on Hwy. 3 classified as critical in nature," says Maisonville. "Essex County transportation experts conducted studies that concluded the number of crashes could be reduced by as much as 42% by expanding the highway from two to four lanes."

With the county's thriving agriculture business expected to continue growing, officials say Hwy. 3 is already running at beyond capacity, and it's only going to get busier. The county says its agri-business is a $3-billion industry employing over 8,000 people.

Joining Bain and Maisonville at the AMO are mayors Nelson Santos of Kingsville, John Paterson of Leamington, Ken Antaya of LaSalle, and Ron McDermott of Essex; along with Tom Bateman, the director of the county's infrastructure services.

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