This was announced by the provincial government last September, was made part of the Tories' re-election campaign in February, and yesterday the government announced the advent of feasibility studies. So these guys are serious. The 401 is the busiest freeway on Earth, and is heavily congested every day, sometimes all day, but always during rush hours. This would be the longest tunnel in the world, and presumably the most expensive transportation project ever undertaken.
Is the tunnel technically feasible? Sure. Is it realistic? No. I don't think there's the slightest chance of this happening. It would cost up to $130 billion and take decades to build. It would be a colossal waste of money (that is well-needed elsewhere) and time.
Also, the government wants this to run from Mississauga in the west to Scarborough in the east, which is 55km. I assume the plan is to have the eastern ingress/egress be on the eastern edge of Scarborough, near Port Union Rd. The problem is that the 401 is almost
always badly congested where it narrows 10-15 kms
east of there in Ajax-Whitby, in the area between Salem Rd. and Brock St., so a tunnel that did not include that zone would not solve anything. This must come out east of Oshawa to be of any use, imo.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11120451/...study-2-years/
Quote:
Doug Ford’s Highway 401 tunnel feasibility study could take 2 years: internal documents
A feasibility study to build an express tunnel under Highway 401 could take up to two years, Global News has learned, as the Ford government prepares to tender a contract to investigate the potential cost and viability of the project.
In the fall of 2024, Premier Doug Ford announced his government would look into constructing a traffic-transit tunnel under a 50-kilometre stretch of the congested highway to address the economic cost of gridlock in Toronto.
While the government has offered few other details on the potential project, including estimated costs, the Progressive Conservative Party committed to building the massive infrastructure project during the recent provincial election.
The details were included in a January 2025 document called “401 tunnel feasibility and gridlock relief plan.”
The government document states that by 2051, the average drive time along the 401 between Highway 427 and Highway 404 will double from the current average of 22 minutes to 44 minutes. Those numbers are identical to a similar assessment from 2022.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...cost-1.7464404
Quote:
Doug Ford's 401 tunnel vision could come with a nearly $100B price tag, expert says
Doug Ford's plan for a tunnel under Highway 401 has gone from a surprise announcement to a full on re-election pledge.
And according to one expert's cost estimate, it could be a near $100-billion idea, which would make it the single-most expensive Ontario election promise in the last 10 years, if not the province's history.
In September, the PC leader, who was then premier, said his government would explore a tunnel for drivers and public transit under the 401, with a feasibility study to follow. On his re-election campaign in February, Ford said, "We're going to get that tunnel built."
Little is known about the plans for the tunnel aside from the fact that the Ministry of Transportation says it could go from Brampton or Mississauga in the west to Scarborough or Markham in the east — a massive, costly, roughly 55-kilometre long project that some say may not solve Toronto's traffic woes.
The cost of the tunnel would likely exceed $50 billion, according to Brian Garrod, a past president of the Canadian Tunnelling Association who worked on the Channel Tunnel (or chunnel) connecting England with France as well as several major subway projects in Toronto.
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