The City of North Bay is receiving an influx of funding to help design and repair one of its busiest thoroughfares and a misaligned intersection.
Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli announced the Ontario government is spending $3 million through the MTO's 2025-26 Connecting Links Program to rehabilitate Trout Lake Road from Highway 11/17 to Kingsway Avenue. The project is set for the design phase this year with construction coming in 2026.
The budgeted $3.4-million project also includes the reconstruction of the Laurentian Avenue intersection with Trout Lake Road.
“Today’s $3-million investment will provide more people in North Bay with safe and reliable roads for their daily commute,” says Fedeli. “Our government will continue to provide the funding municipalities need to maintain our transportation infrastructure for generations to come.”
The City's Road Safety Strategy identified the Laurentian Avenue intersection with Trout Lake Road — often used on the south side by motorists and pedestrians as an access point to Northgate Shopping Centre — as a priority intersection for safety issues when it comes to pedestrians, cyclists, and aggressive driving. It is expected alignment of the side street approaches will improve driver expectation, safety, and traffic signal operations.
This project was discussed during recent capital budget deliberations.
According to the budget documents, "Trout Lake Road is an arterial road with Laurentian Avenue as a side street. The two Laurentian Avenue approaches are offset ... by approximately 30 metres, creating a non-standard intersection and traffic signal configuration.
The work involves the engineering and construction to align the two Laurentian Avenue side-street approaches that intersect with Trout Lake Road. Engineering services will include survey, design, contract drawings, specifications, tendering, construction inspection, contract administration, and project management.
"The Trout Lake Road corridor is a critical route for both residents and visitors, and this funding will help ensure its maintenance, safety, and accessibility. We look forward to seeing these essential upgrades take shape," says North Bay Mayor Peter Chirico.
Although not included in this funding application, the long-range plan is to extend the rehabilitation work beyond Kingsway Avenue to Connaught Avenue. There are budget lines for 2031–32 for design and construction, with a project cost of $4.475 million. If the Connecting Links program remains active, this project would be eligible for funding just as the Highway 11/17 to Kingsway Avenue portion was.
The Connaught to Giroux Street section would follow.
A one-kilometre section of Trout Lake Road from Highway 11/17 to Connaught Avenue was fully reconstructed in 2009. That construction was also completed through the Connecting Link Program. According to the report, the City performed some crack sealing in 2019 to extend the life of the asphalt. The section of road between Connaught and Giroux Street was resurfaced in 2015 and is now experiencing surface cracking.
On-road bike lanes, a three-metre wide multi-use pathway (in boulevard), or a combination of the two running from Highway 11/17 to Giroux Street is needed to connect to the existing facilities on Trout Lake Road constructed in 2022 to finalize this roadway's active transportation needs.
The Connecting Links program funds up to 90 per cent of eligible project costs, to a maximum of $3 million for road projects or $5 million for bridge projects. Municipalities can apply for provincial funding yearly to repair designated roads and bridges that connect two ends of a provincial highway through a community or to a border crossing.