Highway 401 tunnel will go beyond Mississauga and Brampton, promises Doug Ford

Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford has doubled down on his plan to tunnel under Highway 401, saying if he is re-elected the project will proceed.

Speaking on the campaign trail today, Ford said the tunnel would go “beyond Brampton and Mississauga in the west and beyond Markham and Scarborough in the east” as a way to ease gridlock across the GTA.

According to Ford’s plan, the tunnel will include both vehicle and transit lanes and be one of the largest, most ambitious infrastructure projects in the world.

“A new expressway under Highway 401 will be a game-changer 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,” said Ford.

While committing to the project, Ford said he could not yet commit to the cost which is likely to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. He also acknowledged that it would “take years” to complete.

Announced last fall, Ford has been touting the tunnel idea as the only alternative to getting more traffic routes across Toronto with the scarcity of available land.

He believes the tunnel would provide a new, faster route for some of the most gridlocked roadways in North America.

“Ontario’s gridlock problem is leaving the average Toronto-area commuter stuck in traffic for 98 hours every year, taking up precious time that would be better spent with family, friends and loved ones, and is costing our economy $11 billion every year in the GTHA alone,” he said last fall.