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Ontario’s Highway 427 expansion project wraps up

Ontario has wrapped up its expansion project on Highway 427 in Vaughan, and the widened stretch will open to the public Sept. 18.

The 10-kilometre expansion runs on Highway 427 from Finch Avenue to Major Mackenzie Drive. It’s expected to reduce congestion, saving commuters up to 25 minutes of total travel time for a two-way trip during peak periods compared to driving along parallel city roadways.

A 6.6-kilometre extension of the highway includes eight new lanes from Highway 7 to Rutherford Road and six new lanes to Major Mackenzie Drive. Three new interchanges at Langstaff Road, Rutherford Road and Major Mackenzie Drive have also been constructed to connect roadways without interruption.

A four-kilometre segment has also been widened to eight lanes from Finch Avenue to Highway 7 along with an upgraded full interchange at Highway 7.

The project created about 1,000 jobs from 2018 to 2021. The ministry worked with Infrastructure Ontario on the expansion using their public-private partnership (P3) delivery model. LINK 427 won the contract to design, build, finance and maintain the project.

LINK 427’s team included:

• Developer: ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc. and Brennan Infrastructures Inc. (a member of the Miller Group of Companies)
• Construction: Dragados Canada Inc., Brennan Infrastructures Inc. and Bot Infrastructure Ltd.
• Design: MMM Group Ltd. and Thurber Engineering Ltd.
• Maintenance: ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc. and Brennan Infrastructures Inc.

The contract value was $616 million.

Ontario will also be opening one high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane in each direction of Highway 427 to further help improve traffic flow. The new northbound HOV lane will be located between Highway 409 and Rutherford Rd. The southbound HOV lane will start north of Rutherford Road and connect to an existing HOV lane south of Finch Ave.

The extension also will have two interchanges near the Vaughan Intermodal Facility to accommodate long combination vehicles, making it easier for trucks to manoeuvre.

To mitigate effects of the road construction on the local habitat, the Ministry of Transportation completed a 3.2-hectare woodland restoration of a former agricultural field on the east side of the highway, just north of Rutherford Road, and installed 20 habitat structures for four species of bats (Little Brown Myotis, Northern Myotis, Eastern Small-footed Myotis and Tri-coloured Bat).