ShonTron
Moderator
Look at the Highway 17 near the Manitoba boarder. A decade later and still nothing. It's not first nations problem there. The only thing the liberals did so far is twinning some portions of Highway 11/17 from TB to Nipigon. Folks aren't happy that the highway remains at 90km/h as it was before. Saskatchewan and Alberta has 110km/h limits on at-grade expressways. MTO chooses 90 km/h. Northern Ontario is so large, this should build freeways and remove daytime speed limits in rural portions so people could get around faster. I doubt we'll see more than 100km of the Highway 17 twinned in out lifetime. No knows when they'll actually upgrade the TB Expressway into a freeway.
Same for North Bay. MTO already done the EA for 60km of new Hwy 17 freeway east of North Bay but highly doubt anything will happen till the mid 2030s. The Highway 69 twinning delays has push back twinning of the Sudbury bypass and possibly freeway extension east of the current eastern terminal. They say there's a plan to eventually twin Hwy 17 from Sault Ste Marie to Mattawa and from Petawawa to current 417 terminal. Eventually they could link up and the 417 would over take the 401 being the longest freeway in Ontario. The only twinning done last decade was near Sault Ste Marie which lead to the protest that old Hwy 17 should be renamed Hwy 17B and not 638. MTO should hurry up and get Highway 69 done so this can get moving and finally get rid of the Hwy 69 designation for good. It's been 15 years and MTO has old twinned half of the ~150km of Highway 69.
The 90 km/h speed limits are strange on the new twinned sections of Highway 17. There are sections of Highway 11 south of North Bay and through Muskoka with at-grade intersections, yet, it's 100 km/h.
The sections of Highway 69 twinned and/or replaced with Highway 400 have dealt with most of the worst parts of driving that road: the section south of Sudbury through Wanup and over the CN railway, the dangerous S-surve and intersection of Highway 637 to Killarney, the Nobel bypass. The only slow-ish section now is at Pointe au Baril.
As it is, it's a pleasant drive compared to 10 years ago. Apart from twinning the French River and Pickerel River bridges, and maybe a Pointe au Baril bypass, I don't think Highway 69/400 needs to be finished.
In the north, my priorities would be to improve the Highway 17/69 connection in Sudbury and twin the Sudbury bypass, compete the twinning between the Manitoba border and Kenora and between Thunder Bay and Nipigon. Highway 417 shouldn't extend beyond Petawawa.