PICKERING, Ont. — Truckers on local delivery to the Durham region won’t likely be taking Hwy. 407 anytime soon.

It could now be another eight years before a proposed extension of the toll road can be completed to the east of Brock Road after the provincial transport ministry announced it has to conduct another environmental assessment on the plan.

Local politicians are feed up with the delay due to the traffic faced by commuters who face poor traffic conditions daily on Hwy. 401. Durham Region Chair Roger Anderson says the move is, “totally unacceptable” and insists some way must be found to create more traffic routes in and out of the eastern end of the GTA.

At the opening of Hwy. 407 extension to Brock Road last August, then transportation minister Brad Clark said it wouldn’t be long before another 30-km stretch was extended to meet with Hwy.s 35 and 115 in the Municipality of Clarington.

But that plan appears to have gone out the window and a new environmental assessment won’t be completed until late in 2004.

Anderson predicts that with provincial approvals, land acquisition and construction, it could be 2010 before anyone is using the new section of highway across Durham.