July’s end will see Barrie’s Essa Road, between Fairview and Ardagh roads, closed to all traffic overnight.
The erection of new bridge girders, part of the Highway 400 bridge replacement at Essa, means no traffic, including emergency services, will be able to travel through these closures.
They will be Monday, July 29 from 11 p.m. until Tuesday, July 30 at 5 a.m., Tuesday, July 30 from 11 p.m. until Wednesday, July 31 at 5 a.m., Wednesday, July 31 from 11 p.m. until Thursday, Aug. 1 at 5 a.m.
The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is constructing a new interchange at Essa Road and Highway 400, while also widening Essa Road to six lanes between Fairview Road and Bryne Drive/Ardagh Road. This work also includes significant roadwork on Highway 400, between Harvie Road and Tiffin Street.
The project’s construction phase began in June 2022 and is anticipated to be completed by the fall of 2025.
The construction contract’s value for the Essa Road bridge replacement project is $105.4 million, and costs are shared between MTO and the City of Barrie.
Work being done includes replacing the Highway 400 bridge at Essa Road to accommodate the future widening of Highway 400 to a 10-lane cross-section, widening Essa Road from four to six lanes between the Bryne Drive/Ardagh Road intersection at the west end, and the Fairview Road intersection at the east end, with the addition of a multi-use pathway on the north side of Essa Road.
The Highway 400/Essa Road interchange is being reconstructed, including the addition of a dedicated ramp from eastbound Essa Road to southbound Highway 400, and a new bridge to allow the ramp to cross the commercial access road in the southwest quadrant of the interchange.
There’s also the replacement of traffic signals at the new ramp terminals, storm sewer replacement, culvert extension, stormwater management measures, pavement rehabilitation. and safety upgrades.
The preliminary design of this project was laid out in provincial Highway 400 improvements documents, covering the distance from one kilometre south of Highway 89 to the junction of Highway 11, also known as the 400/11 split.
The demolition and replacement of Highway 400 bridges and underpasses is part of MTO and city plans to improve traffic flows in Barrie and add more lanes to the 400 to deal with its traffic volumes.
Barrie’s bridge replacement or construction projects, and their multimillion-dollar costs, began almost a decade ago with the Cundles Road/Duckworth Street project.
It involved the reconstruction, widening and improving streets from Livingstone East to Bernick Drive and Rose Street, including a new bridge at Highway 400.
This project reconstructed Cundles Road East from Livingstone Street to Duckworth, rebuilt Duckworth from Cundles Road to Bernick Drive — including a new Highway 400 bridge structure and interchange — and realigned Little Lake Drive from Duckworth to Cundles.
New storm sewers, water mains, sanitary sewers, traffic signals, sidewalks, street lights and storm management ponds were also included.
The federal government paid as much as $14 million of the cost, the MTO a maximum of $19 million and the city’s tab was $9 million, plus any cost overruns.
Work continued with the Harvie Road crossing, opened in south-end Barrie in the summer of 2021, and connecting Harvie Road to Big Bay Point Road over Highway 400. It has five lanes for vehicle traffic, two separate lanes for bicycles and two sidewalks for pedestrians.
The $76-million crossing can handle 20,000 vehicles a day, according to city staff, and is designed to significantly reduce traffic volumes on Essa Road, Mapleview Drive and other streets in the area.
