Windsor-Essex Parkway construction set for summer ’11

WINDSOR, Ont. — A contractor tapped to build the much anticipated Windsor-Essex Parkway truck route has reached a 1.4 billion pricing agreement with the province of Ontario.

The news means that shovels will break ground in the summer of 2011 on the below-grade roadway along the Huron Church Road-Talbot Road corridor.

Officials hope to have it completed by the fall of 2014.

The 11-km parkway will help separate local and international border traffic, and eliminate stop-and-go traffic in residential areas.

The route was planned to end at the proposed site for a new cross-border bridge in the Brighton Beach area in southwest Windsor. That project remains up in the air, however.

Regardless of what happens with the bridge project, Ontario officials assured that the parkway construction will forge ahead as planned.

"The Parkway is an essential part of our government’s commitment to renew aging infrastructure across the province," said Ontario Finance Minister and Windsor MPP Dwight Duncan. "The design and construction of this project will make a difference in the lives of many people in our community by providing well needed jobs and training."

Infrastructure Ontario will post copies of the project agreement online at www.infrastructureontario.ca in the coming months.