Stoplight Coming to Hwy.7 & 41 Intersection, But Not Soon

Jeff Green | Jan 17, 2024

On November 15, Addington Highlands Public Works Manager Brett Reavie participated in a virtual meeting with Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) officials and Lennox and Addington County Officials. The MTO informed him that traffic counts at the Highway 7 and Hwy 41 intersection show that a stoplight is now warranted at that location.

They said they would be coming to an Addington Highlands Council meeting early in the new year to talk about next steps.

Reavie brought the news to a council meeting a few days later. At that time, he said “The problem with lights is that they [MTO] will have to make changes to the intersection to meet their requirements, and it will have to be changed around quite a bit to do that. It’s not a quick process but it is moving forward.”

The discussion had already had a long history. The township first approached the MTO in 2010 about the need for a stoplight at that location.

Councillor Helen Yanch, who was involved in those discussions back in 2010, and has followed the file ever since, was happy to hear Reavie's report.

“We knew there’d have to be a re-jigging down there,” Yanch said back in November, but we first sat in on a meeting about this 13 years ago, so I guess we can wait a few more months.”

True to their word, Darren Waters, P. Eng., Area Manager Highway Engineering, and Lori Brake, Traffic Supervisor, came to Addington Council this week, the first meeting of the year, to talk about the process that is being instigated.

The slides they presented outlined everything that has gone on at the location, and confirmed the traffic counts.

But then it became very clear that it will take more than a few months before anything actually happens at the intersection, a lot more.

As they explained to Council on Tuesday, (January 16th) detailed design work could commence in the fall of 2024, and will take an estimated 2 years.

“As you can see,” Darren Waters said, referring to a slide showing a rerouting of Hwy. 41 that will need to take place south of Hwy. 7, a lot of work needs to be done. The current intersection on both the north and south sides will be closed off. Because of the new land we will be using, the project will require at least two full year cycles to complete an environmental assessment at this location.”

Once the design work and environmental assessments are done, it will take 1.5 to 2 years to acquire any additional land that is identified, and then the project will finally be able to go to tender.

The first question for Waters came from Reeve Henry Hogg.

“Is MTO picking up all the costs for this?” he asked.

“Funnily enough, that’s the same question they asked at the county,” said Waters, “we view this as an MTO project.”

Helen Yanch wanted to know if a temporary stoplight could be put in at the existing intersection, but Waters said “we would not do that because of the way the roads there are skewed. This is not as simple as putting up a stoplight.”

Councillor Ken Hook asked if the time frame was in the 5 year range or the 10 year range.

“I would say at least 5 years,” said Walters, and it will need to be funded. We have many more road projects than we have the budget available to cover. Given the realignment it is also an expensive project, but it certainly has a strong need, so it will have some priority.

In response to a question from Deputy Reeve Tony Fritsch about this project extending out long enough to potentially dovetail with a High Frequency VIA Rail project, Waters said “my understanding is that they are looking at the same corridor, so part of the requirements on the team working on this, will be to liaise with VIA to determine their needs, should that project end up going ahead.”

Councillor Yanch then asked if the number of entrances onto both Hwy 7 and Hwy 41, from local business, could be looked at in the short term to make the area safer immediately, and Waters said he would bring that concern back to the Ministry.