Backers of a proposal to create a dedicated road corridor to move oversize loads of industrial vessels and equipment through Sarnia and St. Clair Township are set to get started while still hoping the province and federal governments eventually kick in some cash.
The Sarnia area is home to a number of industrial service companies, including metal fabricating shops, set up to make large industrial manufacturing modules, components and vessels.
In recent years, the companies have been doing more work for customers beyond the refineries and chemical plants in Sarnia-Lambton’s Chemical Valley but getting large loads to Sarnia Harbour for shipping out is complicated and expensive with the need to temporarily raise utility lines and maneuver over streets and through intersections not designed for the big loads.
Supporters of a permanent corridor say it will save shipping costs and help create a significant number of jobs, in the years ahead.
The Sarnia Lambton Industrial Alliance, a group of metal fabricators and service companies, has been building a case for a permanent corridor estimated to cost $12 million. So far, half that amount has been pledge by the City of Sarnia ($4.7 million,) Lambton County ($1.2 million,) St. Clair Township ($75,000) and the alliance ($10,000.)
They hoped to convince the federal and provincial governments to fund the other half but, so far, the grant applications haven’t been successful.
Monday, city council will be asked to back a plan to use city funds in Sarnia’s 2017 and 2018 budgets and bring on a project manager, under contract, and begin planning, phasing, budgeting and consultation with the public so the work can begin now, instead of waiting for senior government funding.
Earlier this week, Lambton County agreed to drop a condition tying its pledge senior government funding. City council took the step earlier this summer with its pledge.
The city is leading the project because that’s where most of the corridor work is required.
“Right now, we have $6 million and we’re halfway there,” said Margaret Misek-Evans, Sarnia’s chief administrator officer.
“The political direction is to get the project going.”
She said local officials met this summer with Monte McNaughton, Ontario’s infrastructure minister and MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, and later with the Parliamentary assistant to both Premier Doug Ford and the infrastructure minister, to continue lobbying for financial help.
“We’re trying to keep the options open and available to secure senior government funding for some phases of the project,” Misek-Evans said.
“They haven’t been able to commit to anything but they have received the project, positively.”
The work city council is being asked to approve Monday includes determining phases the work can be carried out in.
Misek-Evans said projects usually don’t qualify for senior government funding if work has already begun.
Breaking the construction into phases is intended to allow the community to keep the door open for upper government grants for sections of the project that haven’t started.
“We are still hopeful we would be able to apply for funding, but not wait to begin the project,” she said.
The aim is to begin work in 2019.
“I think it’s a very positive project,” Misek-Evans said.
“It will assist the industrial community and facilitate some economic growth and real assessment growth, which is what the city’s objectives are.”
A business plan prepared for the project estimated the corridor could generate an additional $9.5 million in annual sales and create 2,613 person years of employment.
https://www.theobserver.ca/news/local-news/oversize-corridor-project-rolling-ahead