Abstract Manager

Ontario’s Highway 69 is a key route linking Northern and Southern Ontario which was identified to be upgraded from an existing two-lane undivided rural highway to a four-lane divided rural freeway as part of the Route Planning and Environmental Assessment. Highway 69 has been upgraded from both the north and south ends over the past two decades, however, there is an approximately 68 km stretch of two-lane undivided rural highway remaining between Parry Sound and south of the French River.  MTO is currently within an engineering phase for this remaining portion.

The new proposed route for the next 20km section of Highway 69 four-laning south of French River ranges up to 1.5 km to the east of the existing highway and traverses through mainly naturalized areas including forest, rock barrens, wetlands, and features numerous river and lake crossings. The proposed route also crosses through a First Nation reserve.

The new highway will impact wildlife corridors and reviews have occurred to identify opportunities for wildlife crossing to support both small and mid-sized wildlife, including Species at Risk, as well as large wildlife, such as black bears, white-tailed deer, and moose.  Wildlife crossing opportunities and culvert upsizing to accommodate smaller aquatic and semi-aquatic species, including SAR snakes and turtles have been designed. Some proposed structures in the corridor will already accommodate large wildlife passage, and the MTO is taking steps to provide additional large wildlife crossings in the corridor. Review occurred to identify further opportunities to upsize proposed crossings in the corridor for large wildlife.

Building upon the preliminary design study for the next 20 km section south of French River, Parsons reviewed the proposed culvert crossing designs, to determine if they were feasible for further upsizing to accommodate large wildlife passage. This review considered not only environmental and species-specific criteria, but also the existing design and profile constraints/impacts, drainage considerations, cost, and constructability.

This presentation will review the identification and screening of wildlife crossing opportunities and how the various environmental, transportation, and cost factors were balanced to identify recommendations and conceptual designs. The presentation will also review the next steps for future detail design and construction phases of the project.