Thunder Bay's long awaited designated truck route bylaw back before council

CBC

02-06-2025

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Heavy trucks may soon find themselves limited in terms of how they travel through Thunder Bay.
The city's long-in-development designated truck route bylaw is going back before council on Monday.
The bylaw, if eventually approved by council, would limit transport trucks to specific roads in the city.
The proposal would prohibit the trucks from using Highway 102 or Arthur Street; instead, they'd have to use Highway 61 or Highway 11/17, and the Harbour Expressway, Main Street and Island Drive.
"Heavy trucks will be able to travel to any delivery destination in the City," the report to council states. "Trucks will be required to traverse as far as practical along the new Designated Truck Route during a trip. They are required to use the shortest possible distance on undesignated [c]ity streets to their end destination while still adhering to the weight restricted streets. Enforcement will be by Thunder Bay Police."
Coun. Andrew Foulds noted that council has already approved a designated truck route, but has yet to actually pass the bylaw itself. The bylaw will be presented on Monday, and councillors will debate and make a decision on that at their June 23 meeting.
"I have been a supporter of the designated truck route from the very beginning," Foulds said. "I continue to be a supporter of the designated truck route."
But, he added, moving truck traffic to Highways 61 and 11/17 won't completely eliminate risk.
"Hwy 11/17 is built to a different engineering standard," he said. " This isn't a perfect solution, but for me, the deciding factor was the reducing of risk."
Neebing Coun. Greg Johnsen, whose ward has Highway 61 as its eastern border, and includes a large section of Arthur Street West, said the designated truck route bylaw is "well overdue."
Concerns over truck traffic on Arthur Street were among the first things he heard when he was elected to council, Johnsen said.
"But I would suggest that this isn't just an Arthur Street or Dawson Road, issue or ward issue," he said. "This is a City of Thunder Bay issue."
"We have a highway out there that the province has bought and paid for, if you will," Johnsen said. "The highway structure is set up to to deal with these heavy trucks."
"It makes more sense to put this on a roadway that can handle it."
The bylaw is not without opposition, however. Surrounding townships and municipalities have all submitted written statements opposing the bylaw.
"On behalf of Council, I am writing to express our firm opposition to the proposed bylaw scheduled for consideration on June 23rd, which would prohibit trucks from accessing Highway 102 and divert transport trucks to Highway 11/17 ," Oliver Paipoonge Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis wrote. "This diversion would significantly impact rural municipalities along the route, including the Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge, particularly the Village of Kakabeka Falls, where there is an elementary school and a senior's home."
More trucks through Kakabeka
Kloosterhuis stated that a traffic study done in April 2018 revealed an average of 869 "heavy trucks" used Highway 102 each day. A second study done a year later showed an average of 758 heavy trucks used Highway 11/17 in Kakabeka Falls each day.
"This data clearly demonstrates the city's diversion of truck traffic will double the number of heavy trucks traveling on Highway 11/17 through Kakabeka Falls," she stated.
Conmee Mayor Sheila Maxwell said her community is also concerned about the increase in truck traffic should the bylaw pass.
"The problem is we have always had the long loads, the chip drivers, the log drivers, delivery trucks, wide loads, hazardous loads, they've always come through our township because it's a flatter route," she said. "That village is also very, very busy."
"Summertime, it's tourists, it's campers, it's hard for us locals even go into businesses, to get out onto the highway," she said. "Plus the school buses have a hard time getting out with the kids."
'It's not the road itself'
Maxwell said there are other issues when it comes to highway safety and transport trucks in the area.
"It's not the road itself," she said. "It's the drivers that don't have the proper training, or the companies that are pushing them, or it's the vehicles."
"Directing that traffic through our municipalities, it's not the answer."
Maxwell said the proposed Shabaqua Extension would address many of the concerns the surrounding townships have, as it would provide a route for trucks that don't travel through places like Conmee or Kakabeka.
"The overall extension will connect Thunder Bay to Shabaqua and is part of the Ontario Highways Program," a Ministry of Transportation spokesperson said in an email to CBC News. "The Preliminary Design assignment for the first section of the Shabaqua Extension, from Thunder Bay to Kakabeka Falls, was recently awarded to WSP. Work on the Preliminary Design and Environmental Assessment will begin in the coming weeks."
"As the preliminary design progresses, construction timing and scheduling details will be developed."
McIntyre Coun. Albert Aiello, who's in favour of the designated truck route, said population density along and around Highway 102 is growing.
And the trucking industry itself has changed over the years, as well, he said.
"The vehicles are lot bigger, they're heavier, they can travel faster, they're automatic," he said. "Things have changed. And I think we need to change."