TORONTO — The Ford government has awarded a detailed design contract to widen Hwy. 400 from six lanes to 10 between Hwy. 9 and the future Bradford Bypass, an 11-kilometre stretch Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said will add one HOV lane and one general-purpose lane in each direction.Sarkaria made the announcement Monday in King Township, alongside King-Vaughan MPP Stephen Lecce, Vaughan-Woodbridge MPP Michael Tibollo and York-Simcoe MPP Susan Leahy, who won a byelection earlier this year. The new lanes would connect to the existing HOV network south of Hwy. 9, and Sarkaria said the widening is meant to tie into the Bradford Bypass. He gave no price for the design contract.The province has said it will spend $31 billion over the next decade to expand highways. Sarkaria cited a study that put the cost of congestion at $56 billion in economic and social impacts in 2024, and said the Hwy. 400 is a commuter, tourist and commercial route linking southern and northern Ontario.In January 2025 the government finished widening nine kilometres of the highway between Major Mack and King Rd., and work is underway in Barrie to replace the Dunlop St. Bridge so a later expansion can fit..Asked for a timeline and a cost, Sarkaria said the design will take the next year, with early work on existing infrastructure and construction equipment on the road within a couple of years.He said some work to connect this stretch to the Bradford Bypass has already started, and that construction will be underway in the coming year. Lecce said the earlier widening south of Hwy. 9, delivered on time, had already cut gridlock for Holland Marsh growers moving crops to market, and that King Mayor Steve Pellegrini and other municipal leaders had pressed for the next section.
