Highway 69 gains another 4-lane section amid projected delay

Another section of four lanes will officially open next week on Highway 69, but the completion of the whole project is now expected to go years past the original date of 2017.

A media event is planned for next week to mark the completion of nine more kilometres of the four-lane highway south of Sudbury, followed by 11 more kilometres in the summer of 2016.

However, when the entire highway will be four-laned is still up in the air, due to the negotiations between the province and First Nations in the area.

Talks between the stakeholders have started, but they are preliminary, according to Chief Wayne Pamajewon of the Shawanaga First Nation.

Pamajewon said his community supports the expanded highway, but is looking for economic benefits, such as jobs during construction and business opportunities at a planned interchange.

"We think that how we set this up is actually going to turn into an economic hub for this community," he said.

4 years of projected delay

Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas said she is pleased to see another four-lane section open, but she wants the province to move more quickly.

"There is a willingness from everybody concerned," she said. "You talk to businesses, you talk to people in the north, you talk to First Nations, you talk to anybody who drives this highway. We all want this completed."

Gelinas said the expected completion date for the highway is now 2021, four years after the original projection.

The Ministry of Transportation declined to comment on the project's completion date, but said a full update will be provided at the event next week.