London, St. Thomas, and Elgin County’s lobbying efforts to upload stretch of Highbury Avenue to province ‘really close’

Representatives from the City of London advocated at a conference on Tuesday for a section of the highly travelled roadway to be assumed by the province.

A surprise amendment to a motion at Tuesday’s meeting of London city council signalled sudden progress in local efforts to transfer a costly infrastructure asset back to the provincial government.

Coun. Hadleigh McAlister appeared by video from Toronto, where he was attending the Good Roads Conference, and asked council to formally endorse a request that responsibility for the expressway portion of Highbury Avenue, from the Thames River to the city limits, be transferred to the Province of Ontario.

The motion was supported unanimously.

Elgin County and St. Thomas are expected to consider similar motions for their respective sections of the former Highway 126.

“Uploading this is very important from a regional point of view, in terms of the future for our whole area,” McAlister told council.

McAlister said he was alongside leaders from Elgin County and St. Thomas at the conference when the province asked for formal endorsements from each council.

Under the proposal, the province would assume responsibility for maintaining and upgrading the roadway to accommodate increased truck traffic tied to the PowerCo electric vehicle battery plant and related businesses.

London Mayor Josh Morgan said an agreement may be close.

“The province has invested heavily in this, as has the federal government, and I think returning this to a provincial highway — which it once was — makes a lot of sense for all partners involved,” Morgan told CTV News after the council meeting.

“I feel like this is actually getting a lot of traction and is really close to coming to a positive resolution.”

The divided expressway portion of Highbury Avenue is the only municipal road in London with a 100‑kilometre‑per‑hour speed limit.

Responsibility for the roadway was transferred from the province to the City of London on June 12, 1991.

The stretch of Highbury within city limits currently carries about 45,000 vehicles daily, with approximately 15 per cent being trucks.