Road report rolls in
Morning traffic is brisk as always at the Canaan Road intersection on the western boundary for Rockland where County Road 17 and Highway 174 meet. A consultant’s environmental assessment report on proposed four-laning of the route between Rockland and Orleans is now ready for public review and comment.
The final report is out on the environmental feasibility of upgrading the highway link between Rockland and Orleans to four-lane status. Residents, who still have comments about either the proposed “best option” in the report or the project overall, still have until the end of June to get their feedback in to the consultants and all three levels of government.
The environmental assessment report (EA) is now available for final public review on the proposed future four-laning of County Road 17 and Highway 174, as far as the Trim Road intersection in Orleans.
AECOM, the consultant firm hired to do the EA, has made the report available online and hard copies are available for reading at the United Counties of Prescott-Russell (UCPR) office in L’Orignal, and city hall in both Clarence-Rockland and the City of Ottawa.
Marc Clermont, UCPR public works director, noted that while the EA report now available is considered the final version, provincial legislation still requires a 30-day public review period during which objections may be filed on either the report as a whole or parts of it.
There is no guarantee that an objection would result in further study for another revised EA report.
“I am glad to see it (EA) finished, and hopefully we won’t see any objections,” said Clermont. “After that, it’ll be a matter of financing.”
When the issue of expanding the 174/17 link between Rockland and Orleans began getting serious consideration from the provincial and federal governments, close to a decade ago, both the then-Harper Conservative and the McGuinty Liberal governments promised to allocate $40 million each towards the projected costs, then, of upgrading the route to four-lane status.
There were assurances several times since then from both federal and provincial representatives for the Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding that the money remained as part of senior government treasury department allocations.
But Clermont would like more than verbal assurances that the promised funds are still there. He also noted that the potential cost for the four-laning may be more now than the original estimates when the $80 million in federal/provincial cost-sharing was promised.
Clermont has left messages with both Ottawa and Queen’s Park about the promised funds but not received any reply yet.
“I’d like to see some kind of letter from a minister saying it is there,” he said.