New highways coming north and south of Newmarket are progressing, but the provincial government is not yet offering concrete timelines.
Ministry of Transportation officials provided updates to Regional Municipality of York council about the progress of Highway 413 connecting from Vaughan southward and the Bradford Bypass.
The updates went over the scope of the projects and efforts to complete assessment and planning for them but did not detail when they might advance more substantively.
The Highway 413 project will be a 52-kilometre highway going southwest from Vaughan, with a projected future transit project also to come.
MTO senior project engineer Jonathan McGarry said they are focusing on ensuring the surrounding infrastructure is aligned in the planning process.
“We're making sure we’re aware of all municipal plans, the road plans that municipalities are proposing, so that we can ensure that our bridges are timed appropriately,” McGarry said. “We are currently in the preliminary design and environmental assessment phase. We don’t have a timeline yet for construction.”
The two highway projects are expected to address population growth in the area and take many years to complete. But they have garnered criticism from those concerned by the environmental impact of the highways.
For Highway 413, the ministry has held multiple public information centres and consultation sessions throughout 2023. Staff said they are now creating a final feedback report to go over everything they have heard about the proposed design for the highway over the past year.
Meanwhile, the Bradford Bypass, a 16.3-kilometre corridor between Highway 400 and Highway 404, is getting underway, with a final environmental impact assessment report published in November and procurement activities initiated. Construction is getting done in phases, starting from the west from Highway 400 to County Road 4.
Newmarket Mayor John Taylor questioned the impact of traffic expected in the area from the Bradford Bypass, including the Highway 404 interchanges in Newmarket and Aurora. He requested a meeting with officials to go over that.
“Those areas are already at capacity at many times today and this will obviously, or you wouldn’t be building it, will drive further capacity," Taylor said, questioning infrastructure improvements at local interchanges to be prepared for increased traffic flows.”
Provincial staff said that they completed traffic studies to examine how the bypass would impact adjacent highways and roads.
More consultation is expected to come for both highway projects. The province has also created an interactive map for Highway 413 to explore the proposed route.
As for the Bradford Bypass, project engineer Alex MacLean said the ministry will continue to “engage and consult with Indigenous communities, regulatory agencies, local and regional municipalities as well as other relevant stakeholders.”
