Mayne fights council on Highway 17 extension decision

As plans for the 4-laning of highway east toward Mattawa begin, North Bay City Councillor Chris Mayne has offered his concerns about the destruction of the Lavase Heritage Portages.

The Portages, well known to the local conservation and canoeing community, are currently very close to the current 2 lane highway near Dugase Bay on Trout Lake. The historical area, used by fur traders, Samuel de Champlain and of course North American natives, is a well-documented passage between Trout Lake and Nipissing. This area is clearly where Europeans first stepped foot into our region as explorers and traders in the settling of the New World. In some people's minds, it's hard to believe that the City would want to plow a highway over such a significant piece of history that is truly a birthing point of North Bay.

The MTO has been looking for suggestions on the proposed re-alignment of Highway 17 and has asked the City to render a decision in choosing a specific way. While each of the proposed Highway 17 Route Alternatives and starting points have their own strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats, council, save for Mayne, agreed that the Starting Point for the new proposed route should veer South at Mirimishi Road to connect to a new interchange that would be constructed at Highway 11 South. This interchange would be in proximity to the Marshall Avenue Road allowance and would represent an opportunity to open a second access to the West Ferris area of the City.

Marshall Avenue ends at the District Core of West Ferris, between the North Bay Mall and Nipissing Plaza. It is believed by council that the opening of this road allowance and a new interchange at Highway 11 South would attract visitors and investments in this commercial area. Long established Tourist Commercial operators on Lakeshore Drive could also benefit from this extension. Municipal infrastructure (sewer and water) exists to the intersection of Marshall Avenue and Booth Road and a North Bay Hydro transformer station abuts the road allowance at its eastern terminus.

In terms of developmental potential, Marshall Avenue offers the best opportunities from a municipal perspective. The extension of services along Marshall Avenue to the Highway would see new opportunities for residential and commercial development. The existence of underutilized infrastructure installed for the Gateway Industrial Park would facilitate rapid growth opportunities along this new arterial route.

The interchange at Highway 11 South would be constructed approximately 2kms south of the current interchange. Land surrounding this proposed interchange is wholly owned by three property owners the Ministry of Transportation, Ontario Northland Transportation Commission and the Corporation of the City of North Bay.

A second access to West Ferris has been contemplated in the Official Plan for many decades. This proposed interchange and accompanying Marshall Avenue extension would alleviate much of the local traffic pressure that currently utilizes the bottle-necked accesses at Judge Avenue and Lakeshore Drive.

Councillor Daryl Vaillancourt fell in favor with council decision to connect the highway to Marshall Park and says the project is still 25 years away from fruition.

“We had to pick, from the City's perspective, a preferred route. We've done that,” says Viallancourt, “what will happen a year from now, 10 years from now, who knows.”

“We'll see what happens down the road.”

However, Councillor Mayne says that from an environmental standpoint, the final route chosen by the majority of council is not the right one.

“I was hoping that the City of North Bay would consider recommending a route that I believe would be less intrusive to the Lavase Portages,” Mayne says.

Mayne says that choosing alternate proposals such as staying close to the existing highway route of Highway 17 through Dugase Bay would have been an ideal choice but realizes that there are concerns with access issues, especially as it gets closer to the existing overpass.

There was another proposal that looked at the Birches Road area where the Quarry is, which is already considered to be a construction site. Mayne says that to put the highway through there would be less disruptive to what he would describe as the 'pristine areas'.

“The areas that are still forested, the historic trails and right now stands to be obliterated by the highway construction and to me it's worth conserving, although not everyone shares this point of view.”

According to Mayne, one of the conservation groups in the area has been working for the last five years to assemble land to bring the Portages back into public ownership and it's on the verge of being done. Mayne says that he's very concerned that this would unravel that at this point what would have been the opportunity to bring the Portages back under public ownership for the first time in 125 years.

“We'll now see that same amount of property being used as a four lane highway and to me, that's a shame.”