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Sunnidale Rd. bridge taking shape, expected to be on time

The $41.4-million project should be complete by year's end; costs being shared between MTO and City of Barrie
Bob Bruton
Bob Bruton

Replacing Barrie’s Sunnidale Road bridge over Highway 400 is still on track for completion by year’s end.

Ontario’s Transportation Ministry (MTO) has said the replaced Sunnidale Road bridge will be two lanes, with its north side having a two-metre-wide sidewalk, which can accommodate any future bicycle lanes, should the City of Barrie choose to build them.

The MTO is currently rehabilitating the Highway 400 corridor from south of Sunnidale Road to north of Bayfield Street. Work includes replacing the existing Sunnidale Road underpass with a wider structure to accommodate the future widening of Highway 400 to a 10-lane cross section, sewer work and Highway 400 pavement rehabilitation, including Bayfield Street and interchange ramps.

The construction contract awarded was for $41.4 million, and its costs are shared between the MTO and the city.

The ministry is currently involved, at various stages, in the replacement of three Highway 400 bridges — at Essa Road, Dunlop Street and Sunnidale Road.

The MTO also plans to replace the Bayfield Street bridge over Highway 400, as well as its on- and off-ramps, starting in 2026. The project’s limits will stretch from Grove to Coulter streets, and widening Bayfield Street to seven lanes. The MTO requires the city to build corresponding transportation improvements on Bayfield, from Coulter Street to Cundles Road.

The demolition and replacement of Highway 400 bridges and underpasses is part of plans, by both the MTO and the city, to improve traffic flows in Barrie and add more lanes to the 400 to deal with its traffic volumes.

This includes 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.

Barrie’s bridge replacement or construction projects began almost a decade ago with the Cundles Road/Duckworth Street project.

It involved 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 inter-change — 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.