The Municipality of Lambton Shores will make a final pitch to the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to install cycling lanes on Highway 21 between Forest and Kettle & Stony Point First Nation as part of a 2024 construction project.
Council recently agreed to strongly encourage the MTO to make adjustments to its resurfacing project. Staff were also directed to schedule a delegation with the Minister of Transportation at the Good Roads Conference, scheduled to take place from April 21 to 24.
"We'll make an attempt to talk to them in Toronto and hopefully we'll have some results from that," said Mayor Doug Cook.
The construction project was initially planned to happen in 2025 but Lambton Shores staff were advised in early March that the project would instead take place this summer.
MTO staff also said the project would not include bike lanes and would only include partially paved shoulders with a width of 0.5 metres.
"MTO staff cited policy reasons for their decision," read a recent report to council.
Cook said it would be nice for existing cycling lanes on Hwy. 21 to extend further as council previously identified active transportation infrastructure as a strategic priority.
In 2020, the MTO included new bike lanes in the Hwy. 21 construction project between Grand Bend and Kettle & Stony Point.
"There's a lot of bike traffic that takes that route right now, so we try to encourage more cycling from Forest up to meet with that cycling path," said Cook.
If final efforts with the MTO come up short, Cook said members of the public will be notified.
