After some 35 years of lobbying, the widening of a stretch of Highway 40 in Sarnia has been included in Ontario's 2021 budget.
The budget tabled Wednesday afternoon specifically mentions the four-laning of about seven kilometres of highway from north of Wellington Street to Indian Road.
Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey doesn't have a specific dollar amount attached to the project, but said it's been a long time coming.
"It's the first time to my knowledge it's ever been in a budget in Ontario history," said Bailey. "That was something I pushed hard for, and asked to have it included. It's in there now and now it's up to myself and others, both municipally and federally, and other leaders in this community as a business world, to push hard to see it done."
Mayor Mike Bradley calls the provincial commitment a huge step forward.
"The former township in 1985 was asking for this road, which is critical to the city and has become more critical to traffic and transportation in the city over the years to be upgraded," said Bradley.
He said the widening will make the highway safer and support continued growth.
"The chamber of commerce, LiUNA union, have been pushing hard along with city council for decades for this to happen, and I'm so pleased to see it happen. It will save lives. There was one four-year period where we had a fatal accident each year. Four lives were lost, which we think could have been perhaps saved if we'd had the four lanes."
The transportation ministry started detailed design and a Class Environmental Assessment Study to replace the CN Rail overpass, just south of Confederation Street, in 2019.
Construction had been scheduled for this year.
-With files from Josh Boyce and Stephanie Chaves