The province will be asked by city council that additional sound or noise barriers be installed along Highway 400 to help improve the quality of life for Barrie residents who live near the busy Ontario highway.
This could mean five decibels less noise. If approved by the province, the new sound barriers would be adjacent to Highway 400, northeast of Anne Street to the end of Edgehill Drive; adjacent to both sides of the Sunnidale Road bridge, and; immediately north of Bayfield Street, on both sides, adjacent to any residential properties.
This plan is a request to Ontario’s Transportation Ministry (MTO) in response to its notice of completion and submission of design and construction report for replacement of the Anne Street bridge, which would accommodate the future 10-lane widening of the 400, and installation of other sound barriers along Highway 400 in Barrie, near Anne, Bayfield and Duckworth streets.
This MTO project also includes resurfacing Highway 400 from north of Dunlop Street to north of Sunnidale Road, and from north of Bayfield Street to north of St. Vincent Street, improving the drainage there and replacing median barriers. The province has opened up a 30-day window for comments on the design of the Highway 400 work north of Dunlop Street, including the replacement of the Anne Street bridge, and the sound barriers.
Council also gave final approval Monday night to a number of land expropriations by the MTO needed to eventually replace Highway 400 bridges and do related interchanges work. The city would receive $547,740 for this land. This work is to replace the Anne Street bridge (2021-22) and Sunnidale Road bridge (2023-24), along with replacing the Dunlop Street bridge and its interchanges (2024-27) and replacing the Essa Road bridge and its interchanges (2022-24).
The MTO says the timeline for all of this work isn’t definite. The Anne Street bridge replacement and noise walls have been identified in the MTO’s Ontario Highway Program, 2020 to 2022, but timing for projects is subject to change depending on availability of funding and obtaining all necessary approvals.
City staff say sound or noise barrier placement is related to how much residential land is immediately abutting the highway corridor, because residential uses tend to be more noise sensitive. Commercial, industrial or institutional uses are less sensitive.
This work is being undertaken as part of MTO’s highway rehabilitation program; each year the MTO receives approved funding for rehabilitation of the provincial highway network and the ministry identifies projects for rehabilitation as part of the Ontario Highway Program. Each project is programmed and a cost estimate is determined for the associated work. The size of the new bridges will accommodate the future widening of Highway 400 to 10 lanes — although funding for the future widening of Highway 400 has not been approved.
Widening the 400 to eight or 10 lanes from six is not a new notion. The plan has been around for decades as a way to ease the growing gridlock commuters, commercial vehicles, tourists and cottage drivers face on a regular basis. The MTO has said the average annual daily traffic along Highway 400 is approximately 100,000 vehicles in the Barrie area.
The MTO is offering a window until Dec. 19, 2020 to comment on its Highway 400 proposals. Click here for more information.
