A trio of Northern Ontario municipalities were among the 19 named by the province to receive funding to fix their portion of provincial highways.
On March 30, the province announced $25 million in funding through the Connecting Links program, which helps municipalities repair roads and bridges that connect two ends of a provincial highway through a community or to a border crossing.
Northern Ontario recipients include:
- Dryden, which received $53,331 to rehabilitate two bridges along Duke Street, which connects to Highway 11;
- Sault Ste. Marie, which received $2,309,750 to resurface two sections of Second Line, which connects to Highways 550/17; and
- Hearst, which received $2,659,508 to rehabilitate Front Street, which connects to Highway 11.
The province provided $20 million in 2016-17 to support 23 Connecting Links projects across Ontario. Funding for the Connecting Links program is $25 million for 2017-18 and will increase to $30 million in 2018-19 and beyond.
Ontario will be updating the Connecting Links program guide to allow more projects to be eligible, such as road widening projects. The new guide will be ready for the next Connecting Links intake in the summer of 2017.
According to the province, there are about 350 kilometres of roads and 70 bridges along connecting links in 77 municipalities across Ontario.
Connecting Links funding covers up to 90 per cent of eligible project costs, to a maximum of $3 million. The eligible costs are for the design, construction, renewal, rehabilitation and replacement of connecting link infrastructure.
