Article content

Essex County Warden Hilda MacDonald has hopes the province will come through with millions of dollars in funding assistance to build a $105-million overpass at one of the most congested intersections in the county. 

Article content

MacDonald and county chief administrative officer Sandra Zwiers met with Ric Bresee, parliamentary assistant to Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in Toronto on Monday to make the county’s case for provincial funding of $60 million to build a “grade-separated” interchange at County Road 22 (the eastern extension of E.C. Row Expressway) and County Road 19 (Manning Road) south of Saint Clair Beach in Tecumseh. 

Article content

Article content

Article content

The county would pay the remaining $45 million required to construct the intersection, MacDonald told the Star after Monday’s meeting. 

Article content

Article content

“Gridlock at this increasingly congested intersection, currently serviced by traffic signals, frustrates area residents and threatens to impede economic development and the construction of new homes,” the county said in a news release. 

Article content

“It is a crucial economic corridor servicing the new battery plant that connects to the new bridge via E.C. Row Expressway and directly to Highway 401 and markets beyond via Manning Road.”

Article content

Article content

Traffic volumes at the intersection are extremely high and are expected to grow significantly with pending development, said MacDonald. 

Article content

“The traffic volumes are incredible. And once the battery plant is full service and the (new acute care) hospital gets going — we’re expecting lots of residential growth in that area — so it’s just a matter of ramping up with an influx of more traffic.

Article content

“We need to make it efficient and we need to make it safe.” 

Article content

Article content

The $6-billion NextStar Energy Battery plant located on Banwell Road is about 3.5 kilometres west of the intersection. It is expected to employ about 2,500 people when fully operational.  

Article content

The new Fancsy Family Hospital, originally budgeted at more than $2 billion, will be located at Cabana Road East and the 9th Concession, about 7.6 kilometres southeast of the intersection. Construction is expected to begin early this year. 

Article content

And residential growth is expected to significantly increase on the about 2,600 hectares (6,400 acres) of the city’s Sandwich South lands located south of Windsor International Airport.  

Article content

Residential growth in that area is expected to address a major part of the province’s target of 13,000 new homes in the Windsor area by 2031. 

Article content

Article content

Ontario Provincial Police describe the intersection as one of the busiest in Essex County and the number of accidents at that location is also high, said MacDonald. 

Article content

While the intersection itself is seven lanes wide at one point, there are also turnoff lanes ahead of the intersection in various directions. 

Article content

This week’s ROMA meeting was the fifth time the county has pitched the intersection to ministry officials, said MacDonald, adding Mondays’ meeting went well. 

Article content

“We did feel positive about the feedback that we got from them. So here’s hoping that they will consider us a partner and step up.” 

Article content

Article content