Highway 138 upgrades are coming, province tells town hall held after woman's death
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Major upgrades to Highway 138 are on track to begin in 2028, the Ontario government announced Saturday at a packed town hall in Moose Creek, Ont., where locals called for safety improvements to the highway.
The new timeline for safety upgrades, which will include the addition of new passing and turning lanes, comes amid growing pressure from nearby residents after the death of Amanda Maloney, a 33-year-old Moose Creek woman, in a three-vehicle collision in March.
"I hope that the officials see that we are a group of people that want change," said Pascal Quesnel, the ex-partner of Maloney and father of her two children, at Saturday's meeting.
"Hopefully it comes, and we don't need to wait forever for them."
Traffic getting heavier
Highway 138 is a roughly 36-kilometre single-lane highway that stretches between Highway 417 and Cornwall, Ont.
An online petition advocating for safety improvements to the highway, dubbed Project Amanda, has garnered more than 7,000 signatures.
But calls to improve safety on the highway, which has seen several fatal collisions over the last decade, are longstanding.
Traffic is also getting heavier.
A burgeoning logistics industry in the region means more trucks on Highway 138. Local politicians are also raising concerns that a new Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park planned for Cornwall will further increase traffic.
Cornwall-area politicians, drivers lament latest Hwy. 138 work delays
A 2017 report from consulting firm Stantec proposed more than two dozen recommendations for improving the highway, from new turning lanes to roundabouts, carpool lots and flood mitigation infrastructure.
Although the final year of that ten-year plan is fast approaching, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has thus far implemented only a few of the recommendations.
'Immediate' solutions
At the Moose Creek town hall, some residents were unimpressed with the province's timeline.
"I think the majority of the people in this whole region want a far more immediate response to this," said Garfield Dunlop. "I was looking for someone to stand up and say, we've got to do something now."
Dunlop's preferred short-term solution would be to put up a flashing amber light to slow drivers.
But several others who took the mic floated a range of inexpensive solutions, from installing a photo radar camera to putting up "emotional" signs that would remind drivers of past tragedies on the road.
"Right now [change] is on the desks," said Rachelle Chrétien, who lost her niece in a collision on the highway in 2020. "I think it's up to the people, up to the communities, up to the counties to continue pushing."
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