Wanderings – Work not platitudes needed on Highway 138

Highway 138 is a death trap. The road, which connects the City of Cornwall to Highway 417 north of Moose Creek, is a 35 kilometre corridor of carnage. Late last month, another person died driving on that highway when her car was in a collision with two transports. This is the latest in a long string of tragedies on this highway.

In the days after the March 29 crash, there were the usual empty statements by elected officials – both municipal and provincial.

Local mayors called again for safety improvements and increased enforcement by the police. Local MPP and cabinet minister Nolan Quinn said again that improvements are in the works. And the local OPP detachment commander said they are boosting enforcement. You can see the improvement online already as police have been posting to Facebook that they pulled some drivers over. While good for getting clicks, this is small comfort to be sure.

Highway 138, if you have ever driven it, is mostly a straight line from the north end of Cornwall all the way to the 417. It is reminiscent of the old Highway 16 between Prescott and Ottawa before the 416 opened. Not a lot of houses on the road, many cross roads, poor sight lines, and zero ability to pass – yet some try.

Driving this road elevates your blood pressure. Having to drive across the road is like playing a game of three-way chicken. It should be avoided at all costs.

The 138 has a lot of transport traffic, as it is the most direct way to get to Ottawa from the south shore of Montréal. There is a lot more truck traffic due to the super mega landfill owned by GFL. There are many school buses on that road due to the many schools in the vicinity. And – frankly – there are a lot of impatient drivers who can’t stand only going 10 kilometres per hour above the speed limit: they do stupid things.

Politicians for decades have identified issues with the highway and claim to have advocated the province – which owns the road – to give a damn. There have been studies; the studies of studies; more studies; and environmental assessments; all with the goal of fixing the highway. There was a report in 2017 with over 20 recommended improvements to the highway including the addition of passing lanes.

Finally, seven years after the report, work began on building a roundabout at one high-incident intersection near Cornwall. That will improve the safety at one key point, but not the overall road.

Many of the improvements listed in that report, adding left hand turn lanes, improved lighting, removing vegetation to improve sight lines are all relatively easy fixes. Adding passing lanes for traffic in longer stretches of the highway is more involved, but the Environmental Assessment is already complete. The needed next steps are less complex and therefore easier to accomplish – except the province has not.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been in office since 2018 and a great number highway projects have already been completed. Large projects, like the Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass are moving forward; lane expansions on Highways 401 and 417 have been completed, and many transit projects are underway – why not the Highway 138? Location.

If Highway 138 was inside the Greater Toronto Area, or even west of Prescott, the improvements would already be complete. If there was the carnage that has been on Highway 138 on a highway in Ford’s field of view, it would be – as Ford likes to say, “all hands on deck.” That isn’t the response that happens. East of Highway 416, except if it is Highway 401, this part of Eastern Ontario does not show up on the provincial radar.

What is needed to address the issues on Highway 138 is not just enforcement – which the police should already know is an issue and be doing – it is literally concrete (or asphalt) action to make physical improvements to the highway. Spare the platitudes, politician grandstanding, special meetings, and the like. Just get shovels in the ground and fix the highway.