Good news for Second Line, bad news for Queen Street

City Council will be asked next week to approve a 2004 start for the long-anticipated reconstruction of Second Line.

To get the job done, councillors are being asked to delay for one year a planned reconstruction on Queen Street, between Church and Simpson Streets.

In a report to be considered by Council at its next meeting on Monday, Mel Brechin, the City's Commissioner of Engineering and Planning, says that the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has tentatively advised that it's prepared to provide $1.6 million for Phase One of the project.

Scheduled for 2004, Phase One would re-build Second Line from just west of Peoples Road to about 100 metres east of Farwell Terrace.

The ministry has also indicated it's prepared to provide $900,000 for Phase Two, continuing from Farwell Terrace to about 50 metres west of Third Avenue.

However, all that is considerably short of the $4.1 million contribution the City is hoping for from the Ministry of Transportation, toward the total estmated project cost of $6.9 million.

And it's all subject to ministerial approval, which so far has not been confirmed.

And there's another wrinkle: City staff want the project to include a centre left turn lane to resolve turning conflicts on Second Line, but so far the McGuinty Liberal Government has been unwilling to provide even a dime for that part of project.

In order to ensure the Second Line work proceeds this year, Brechin is asking Council to defer the Queen Street reconstruction, estimated at $1.1 million.

"It would be best to delay this project one or two years to provide a better schedule of reconstruction with other capital projects that are now scheduled in 2004 and 2005 and the timing of the hospital reconstruction should be known," Brechin says.

He's also calling on the City to go after the Ministry of Transportation to pay its full share of the cost because Second Line is a provincial highway between Highway 17 and the International Bridge.