Dangerous Hwy 41- Hwy7 Intersection Closer to Rebuild

Hastings Lennox and Addington MPP Ric Bresee, joined with Lennox and Addington County Warden Nathan Townend, and Addington Highlands Reeve Tony Fritsch, for an announcement last Wednesday (March 18)

The three men stood in the parking lot of the Kaladar Station restaurant, within metres of the busy intersection of Hwy. 7 and Hwy. 41, as transport trucks and vehicles navigated their way through.

The long-awaited revamping of the junction, which will include a redesign and traffic lights to make what has been a dangerous intersection into a safer one, is one step closer.

While a construction time-frame was not announced, the awarding of a contract for the final design of the intersection was.

Santec Consulting of Guelph was awarded a contract to do “detailed design, environmental assessment, and contract preparation for the project”, said Bresee.

The design project completion date is still two years away in 2028. Once that happens, it will have to wait again until the Ministry of Transportation funds and schedules the construction project itself.

“The ultimate goal of this is that we have a new, realigned intersection, with traffic lights, which will have an incredible positive impact on the safety of the intersection, the management of traffic through it, and the people who travel through it every day, including residents, visitors, and businesses.” said Reeve Fritsch.

Ric Bresee said there have been too many near misses, accidents, and tragedies at the intersection over the years. He added that when he was elected MPP for the riding after the late Daryl Kramp retired, Kramp provided him a list of projects that were important for him, but he had not been able to see through.

“This was one of those projects, and as you know we lost Daryl two years ago, so I am pleased to be able to move this forward for him,” he said.

The redevelopment has already been in the works for over a decade. It has been 8 years since the ministry demolished the building that at one time housed the Kaladar Hotel, on the northeast corner of the existing intersection to make way for a planned rerouting of the intersection, and the ministry bought the property from Andy Anderson several years before that.