$1.2 billion contract awarded to extend Highway 407 in Durham
Construction will begin this fall, Ontario transportation minister Steve Del Duca said Tuesday, promising the road will be publicly-owned and have lower tolls than private 407 ETR.

TheStar.com
April 7, 2015
Richard J. Brennan

The province has awarded a $1.2 billion contract for the second phase of toll Highway 407 with construction beginning this fall, Transportation Minister Steve Del Duca announced Tuesday.
 
But unlike the existing highway, the 23-kilometre 407 extension eastward from Harmony Road in Oshawa to Highway 35/115 will be publicly owned, said Del Duca, adding the tolls will be lower than those charged by the privately-owned 407 ETR.
 
“The Highway 407 East project will create jobs, strengthen the economy and help keep goods and people moving,” the minister said in a statement.
 
“It is important to note that 407 east . . . will remain provincially-owned. The province will set the tolls, safety standards and collect tolls revenues to help fund new infrastructure and transit projects across the province,” he told a news conference.
 
The contract for the extension, which is to be completed by 2020, was awarded to Blackbird Infrastructure. is expected to begin in fall 2015 from Harmony Road to Tauton Road/Highway 418 and is scheduled for completion in December 2017. The remainder will open three years later.
 
The Highway 407 East phase two project will also connect Highways 401 and 407 with a 10-kilometre four-lane link that will serve as a north-south freeway, and provide eight new interchanges. It too will be provincially-owned.
 
Highway 407 ETR is the only 400-series toll highway. It is 107.3-kilometre controlled-access road that stretches from Burlington to Durham Region.

Durham Region chair Roger Anderson welcomed the job creation announcement.
 
“I want like to say thank you for making this vision a reality,” Anderson told Del Duca.
 
In 1999, the then Harris Progressive Conservative government stunned motorists and taxpayers alike when it sold off the rights to the then public highway for 99 years to a Spanish consortium for $3.1 billion, not long before the provincial election.