ORAZIETTI ANNOUNCES $9 MILLION FOR SAULT STE. MARIE ROAD CONSTRUCTION
McGuinty Government Funds Connecting Link Road Improvements

Queen’s Park - Sault Ste. Marie MPP David Orazietti announced today that the Provincial government is providing $9 million for improvements to municipal roads which have previously been considered provincial connecting links.

On May 7, 2004 Orazietti announced that the Ontario government would provide $5.6 million toward the construction of the new Truck Traffic Route which will eliminate transport traffic on nearly 13 km of city streets, making the community safer and reducing maintenance costs.

“The elimination of transport traffic from our busy downtown streets is great news for Sault Ste. Marie drivers,” said Orazietti. “Our government’s $9 million dollar investment will be used to significantly improve these roads, which over the years, have incurred substantial wear and tear from truck traffic.”

Funding is being provided for the following roads and streets:

Trunk Road (Black Road to Wellington St. E) 1.35 km

Wellington Street East (Trunk Road to Cathcart St.) 3.45 km

Wellington Street West (Huron St. to Lyons Ave.) 0.50 km

Cathcart Street (Wellington St. to Huron St.) 0.55 km

Huron Street (Wellington St. to Bay St.) 0.89 km

All of Bay Street 2.19 km

Lyons Avenue (Wellington St. W to Korah Rd.) 0.85 km

Korah Road (Second Line W. to Lyons Ave.) 0.90 km

Second Line West (John St. to Korah Rd.) 1.39 km

Pim Street (Bay St. to Queen E.) 0.17 km

Queen Street East (Pim St. to Church st.) 0.15 km

Church Street (Queen St. E to Wellington St. E) 0.50 km
Total: 12.89 km

The previous government transferred the responsibility of connecting link roads to our municipality without providing adequate funding for their repair.

“We are delighted with the news as we were concerned that with the opening of the new transportation corridor that the province might not assist in the rehabilitation of those roads, many of them residential, which will no longer be required for truck traffic going through the city,” said Joe Fratesi, Sault Ste. Marie’s Chief Administrative Officer.

“We are satisfied that the city has negotiated a fair arrangement with the province to improve these roads and we will be recommending whole-heartedly this agreement to city council for approval,” added Fratesi.

The $9 million investment is part of a larger provincial initiative to improve the transportation infrastructure of Sault Ste. Marie. In addition to the $5.6 million for the Truck Traffic Route, the provincial budget recently committed $4.7 million for roads in the community, and a $1.2 million share of the provincial gas tax for public transit. “I want to thank the Minister of Transportation, Harinder Takhar, for recognizing that improving our city's infrastructure is important to local residents, vital to our economy, and keeps our city moving," said Orazietti.

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