Aurora seeks new Hwy. 404 interchange

YorkRegion.com
Sept. 3, 2015
By Teresa Latchford

Vast development has sparked the Town of Aurora to push for a new highway interchange.

Construction is well underway in the St. John’s Sideroad and Leslie Street area, also known as the 2C lands, and, although it was originally thought the growth would take five to eight years to complete, the town now predicts the bulk of the construction will be done in four years.

The seven developments being built by members of the 2C Landowners Group will see 2,876 housing units - 1,605 fully detached homes, 86 semi-detached homes, 592 townhouses and 593 apartments - to the area. In addition, one stand-alone commercial building, two multi-tenant commercial buildings, a 182-unit apartment building and a 160-unit seniors home is also under construction.

“The population increase this development will bring justifies the new Joint Operations Centre and, with other facilities, we are in good shape to handle the increase,” Mayor Geoff Dawe said. “The biggest issue will be the increase of traffic trying to get on and off the highway.”

A Hwy. 404 interchange at St. John’s Sideroad is included in York Region’s transportation master plan and the town’s master transportation operations study update. However, its creation isn’t included in the region’s current 10-year construction plan.

Despite the town’s CAO and town staff advocating for the project to be completed before the region’s 2021 plan, it has yet to be added to the region’s construction roster.

“Every level of government is strapped for cash,” Dawe said. “It will take a bit of horse trading. The region has X amount of money and the Y is the cost of the project: the two don’t always meet.”

There are some projects approved that will ease traffic once the development is complete, including the widening of St. John’s Sideroad from two to four lanes from Bayview Avenue to east of Leslie Street, the widening of Leslie Street from two to four lanes, sanitary sewer improvements, addition of an intersection for one of the new roads at St. John’s Sideroad and another  intersection from a new road at State Farm Way.

The region and town will each cover half of the cost of constructing two underpasses on Leslie Street, one just north of First Commerce Drive and the other just north of St. John’s Sideroad.

The bridge, to be built on Hartwell Way, will be constructed by developers.

All of these projects have completion dates ranging from this year to 2018.

The mayor and town staff will continue to advocate for the Hwy. 404 interchange at St. John’s Sideroad to be built well before 2021.

For more information, visit aurora.ca.

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