Safety advocate pushes back on speed limit hike on 401's 'carnage alley' until concrete barriers built

An advocate for highway safety says Premier Doug Ford should following through on a four-year-old promise to build concrete centre-median highway barriers on Highway 401 before making any moves to increase speed limits.

Allyson Storey, founder of the advocacy group Build the Barrier, was reacting to comments made this past week by Ford at a news conference. Her group has long been pushing the province to build centre-median barriers along the entire stretch of Highway 401 from west of Chatham to London.

It's a stretch of highway often referred to as "carnage alley" due to its high number of fatal collisions. In 2017, a London mother and her 5-year-old daughter were killed when a truck crossed the median and hit their minivan prompting the province to install cable barriers, with a commitment to later build a concrete divider. 

"Premier Ford did promise this region that the cables would be temporary and would be finished in 2021. There was a pandemic in there, so there needs to be grace there, but it's now the end of 2024 and we need to have progress," Storey said. 

Ford said Tuesday he's directed the Ministry of Transportation to explore increasing the speed limit to 110 km/h on all stretches of 400-series highways "where it is safe to do so." He did not specify which sections of highway he considered safe. 

When asked about the concrete barriers, a Ministry of Transportation spokesperson said the section between Tilbury to Merlin Road was completed in 2023. 

"The MTO is proceeding with the necessary engineering work and environmental assessments for the remaining phases of the Highway 401 expansion from Merlin Road to London, including the installation of concrete median barriers. The timing of construction has not yet been finalized," wrote spokesperson Tanya Blazina. 

Storey said the centre medians should be a priority, and must be a factor when the government looks at highway safety.

"Folks can still break through that cable barrier and come into your lane of traffic. And if they're going faster, they're coming at you faster," said Storey, who is also a councillor for Chatham-Kent. 

Ford told reporters he wanted speed limits raised as a possible way to help with traffic congestion. 

In April of this year, the province announced speed limit increases up to 110 kilometres an hour on select sections of the 400-series highways. 

Those changes included: