Doug Ford’s Highway 401 Tunnel: Right idea, wrong direction
Pointed -hour traffic that crawls along the 401 Rush, seen from the Don Mills Road Vipass, are photographed on October 15, 2024. (Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail)Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Many people are upset by the plans of Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford to dig a tunnel of 55 kilometers, 55 kilometers under highway 401, from Mississauga to east of Scarborough, 55 kilometers..
Toronto Star -Columnist Scott Stinson wonders: “Do I take crazy pills, or Doug Ford is still talking about placing a tunnel under Highway 401?” In De Walrus, David Moscrop writes that Ford is “wrong and his intentions are horribly out of place, out of pass with the future and delusions.”
I always thought that Ford’s dream of digging a tunnel under 401 was “the worst idea in the history of the world” and called it more “delusions” than the time I smoked a joint with PCP in 1982, hallucinated the seeing of quarters of Frisbees and was picked up by law enforcement.
But I came.
Doug Ford has the right idea. He just has the wrong direction.
The 55 -kilometer tunnel may not run horizontally under the highway 401, it must go directly to the center of the earth, because we will all live there if we do not kick our car decorations and acknowledge that cars with one occupation are not the best way to relocate people in large cities.
Healing traffic congestion by digging a gigantic tunnel under an apocalyptic Hellscape that occurs when a highway is when healing your alcoholism by buying a liquor store. It is as if you repair your cannabis dependence by recording cocaine. The only difference is that although those two things at least have the opportunity to be pleasure in the short term, building a tunnel under 401 sounds like an absolute nightmare, a very, very, whole, whole, extremely expensive nightmare.
While digging a tunnel straight to the center of the earth where we can build “New Ontario” is a fantastic idea.
Last week Ford said to the media: “You think of 50 years later. We build that tunnel just as sure as I talk to you.” Again, he is almost the same. In 50 years we will build tunnels – but they will be to where the temperature is not 43 degrees. As soon as we have built “New Ontario” 55 kilometers below the surface, we can dig underground motorways and drive cars in our underground paradise.
For an idea that has been roaming around and everywhere from $ 60 billion to all the money since 2021, the conservative government has little insight into the details. Hoping to get more information, I sent Dakota Brasier, director of media relationships to the Minister of Transportation. I asked if she could “tell me how long the proposed tunnel would be under 401?”
Her entire answer: “The feasibility study is underway that will determine the further details and scope of the project.”
It’s that simple.
Ford defended his tunnel vision and said, “If they can tunnel under the English channel, if they can tunnate through mountains and in any other place, we are sure that the heck can tunnate along 401. We will do it safely, and we will do well.”
Again, he is almost the same. They – the French and the English – built a tunnel under the English canal. They started the “Chunnel” in 1988 and ended the longest submarine tunnel in the world in 1994 (six years). We Canadians cannot even finish upper and underground Lighttraillijn along Eglinton Avenue. We started in 2011 and have still not completed construction (14 years and counting).
It’s Like Me Saying, “Connor McDavid is the 2024 Conn Smythe Trophy Winner (most Valuable Player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs), Five-time Art Ross Trophy Winner (League Leader in Points), Four-Time Player Winner), Three Award Winner,, Three-Time Winner, Winner, Winner, Winner, Winner, Winner, Winner-Time Winner, Winner, Winner-Time Winner, Winner, Winner, Winner-Time Winner, Winner. Trophy Award Winner (Most Valuable Player), The 2022-23 Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy Winner (Leading Goal Scorer) and the only player to record back-to-back matches in a stanley Cup of next year.
Given the track record of Canada, if we started building a mega tunnel on a mega tunnel in 2027, we would be done by 2085. However, by that time we would realize that we should dig where we could give birth to a new underground Shangri-La. So why not cut the waste of time and just do that in the first place?
Of course we could always spend that tunnel money on public transport, as any other good thinking nation would. All the large metropolises (think of the few well -known districts such as New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul, Hong Kong, Berlin and Madrid) have flowering systems for public transport because that is the best way to move millions of people.
But what do they know? They miss our Canadian “elbows up” tunnel vision.
That’s why I say, “Drill Doug Drill! Right on the middle of the earth.”
