Puslinch Council hopes new drone footage will help push for Morriston bypass

Puslinch Council has officially approved the use of drones to capture footage of the traffic and congestion seen on Highway 6 between Maddaugh Road and the 401.

It says it will help in pushing for a new Morriston bypass, sending the information to the Ministry of Transportation (MTO). Council said it previously sent requests to the MTO for approvals as well as funding, but added that the project has continued to be met with delays.

“Since the mid-1990s, the Province of Ontario has studied the feasibility of expanding the Highway 6 corridor, including a bypass around Morriston,” said council in its latest request. “The economic impact of this busy route has significantly increased, benefiting cities in southern Ontario and the growing Port of Huron.”

The new bypass would create a new four-lane Highway 6, with current estimates for the undertaking set at between $500-million and $1-billion. The MTO has confirmed the project itself is still planning to move forward, but is unwilling to commit to a timeline for the project.

Along with the requests for funding, Puslinch Council is now also requesting the MTO revert back to its previously used evidence-based infrastructure funding decision-making model. It argued returning to that method for deciding between funding requests won’t only help to push forward the construction of its own plan, but also aid other communities across the province in the construction of other urgently needed projects.

The footage gathered of the highways will directly be used in those requests.

Council said it has had to wait years for further developments on the project, saying a recent Auditor General’s ‘Highway Planning and Management Report’ has revealed that the project was deferred back in 2019.

“We encourage serious consideration for the construction of the Morriston bypass and that all other deferred highway projects listed in the Auditor General’s report proceed as initially planned,” said council in its request. “The Auditor’s report indicates that while some of the deferred projects have since received partial funding as part of the 10- Year Infrastructure Plan (including the Morriston bypass – Planning/Design work), moving to the
construction phase remains unfunded.”

Puslinch Council continues to say that, “without strong action now, gridlock on Highway 6 will only get worse.”