Months after it was reported there were legal issues surrounding the opening of the Highway 427 extension in Vaughan, officials have announced the new 6.6-kilometre section will open Sept. 18.
“I am pleased to announce the new and widened sections of Highway 427 will be open to the public on September 18,” said Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Transportation. “As part of our vision for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, our government is investing in highway infrastructure to address congestion and keep up with the growing needs of Ontarians.”
The expansion of Highway 427, which serves as a heavily-used commuter route to the City of Vaughan and neighbouring communities, is expected to save commuters up to 25 minutes of total travel time for a two-way trip during peak periods compared to driving along parallel municipal roadways.
The $616 million extension of the highway includes eight new lanes from Highway 7 to Rutherford Road and six new lanes to Major Mackenzie Drive. Three new interchanges at Langstaff Road, Rutherford Road and Major Mackenzie Drive have also been constructed to connect roadways without interruption.
A four-kilometre segment has also been widened to eight lanes from Finch Avenue to Highway 7 along with an upgraded full interchange at Highway 7.
“The Highway 427 expansion will greatly benefit the people of Vaughan-Woodbridge. Not only will it help take vehicles causing crippling gridlock off our local roads, but it will also make our community safer while reducing travel times for commuters and commercial vehicles,” said Michael Tibollo, MPP for Vaughan – Woodbridge. “Most of all, it means the creation of new opportunities like we have never seen before.”
Ontario will also be opening one High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane in each direction of Highway 427 to further help improve traffic flow. The new northbound HOV lane will be located between Highway 409 and Rutherford Rd. The southbound HOV lane will start north of Rutherford Road and connect to an existing HOV lane south of Finch Ave.
“We are proud to have delivered this important piece of transportation infrastructure that will serve people travelling through and around the GTA,” said Michael Lindsay, president and CEO of Infrastructure Ontario.
The province worked with Infrastructure Ontario on the expansion using their public-private partnership (P3) delivery model. LINK 427 won the contract to design, build, finance and maintain the project.
LINK 427’s team included:
- Developer: ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc. and Brennan Infrastructures Inc. (a member of the Miller Group of Companies)
- Construction: Dragados Canada Inc., Brennan Infrastructures Inc. and Bot Infrastructure Ltd.
- Design: MMM Group Ltd. and Thurber Engineering Ltd.
- Maintenance: ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc. and Brennan Infrastructures Inc.
Featured image: Sign gantry over northbound lanes of new Highway 427 extension section approaching the Langstaff interchange (Ontario Ministry of Transportation)
The 427 HOV lane is an outright failure. I travel the 427 to and from work every day and even with just an informal count, I routinely see that at least 90% of the cars in the HOV lane are single occupant, ICE vehicles! And there’s near zero enforcement. Even if there was enforcement, I suspect it would need to be sustained for a long period of time to have any meaningful effect on behaviour. I’m now seriously considering if the cost of the fines and demerit points would be worth the time saved, given that I might only be nabbed once every few years.