The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce is expressing concern over the timelines set out for four-laning Highway 69. Although the province announced its commitment to four-lane Highway 69 from Sudbury to Burwash, the chamber is concerned about the lack of any set timeline for the remainder of highway four-laning, all the way to Parry Sound.
It is the chamber's view that safety issues are of prime concern, and the economic impact resulting from the postponement of the four-laning project cannot be over-emphasized, Mike Dupont, chair of the chamber, said in a press release.
"The chamber is of the view that there are certainly ways of expediting the current process of doing a small section at a time, by combining planning, design and construction of several sections simultaneously.
"The growth of our community and the necessity to improve access to all of northeastern Ontario depends on the immediate development of this important link."
The chamber's four-laning task force will be making every effort to push the entire four-laning project ahead to see it completed in a more reasonable timeline, Dupont said.
The main highway corridor linking Sudbury and a number of its outlying communities will be four-laned by 2005.
