Major highway and road changes coming to St. Thomas, Ont. in preparation of Volkswagen plant

Road changes coming to St. Thomas CTV London's Brent Lale explains how changes are coming to St. Thomas as the city gets ready for the Volkswagen battery plant.

As St. Thomas, Ont. begins to prepare for the arrival of the Volkswagen EV battery plant, the surrounding infrastructure needs some serious upgrades.

Highways and city roads will be widened, and there is even the possibility of new roads being constructed.

The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has hired Stantec Consulting to design the construction of two additional lanes on Highway 3 from Centennial Avenue to Ron McNeil Line.

They will also build a new bypass around Talbotville, which would connect at Highway 4.

That would be converted from two lanes to four to increase access to Highway 401.

“This is going to be one of the most important catalysts for economic development and prosperity in southern Ontario, ever,” said Brendan Sweeney, managing director of the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing.

The City of St. Thomas said the Highway 3 bypass sees between 375-425 vehicles per hour on a weekday. That is expected to increase to 1,500-1,600 vehicles per hour over the next twenty years.

“This is a great bypass for St. Thomas to keep the traffic really out of the residential roads,” said Joe Preston, St. Thomas’ mayor. “The MTO has done some pretty good research on this so I’m pretty pleased.”

There are more road changes expected, which the city has laid out on their website in a public information centre.

The City of St. Thomas is looking to expand Highbury Avenue to six lanes, which would include roundabouts at Ron McNeil Line, South Edgeware Road, and Highway 3 at Centennial Avenue.

There is even talk of an arterial road extending past Centennial Avenue, straight to the Volkswagen plant.

“It sure is a great start of a four-lane safe transit way for residents of St. Thomas who work in London every day or the traffic added by the growth of industry,” said Preston.

Sweeney compared the potential spinoffs to those of the Toyota plant in Cambridge in the mid-1980s.

“These are really important infrastructural upgrades necessary for a growing region,” said Sweeney. “They will benefit more than just one company and its employees. If you look at Toyota, they ended up not just supporting that investment, but supporting broader economic prosperity in the region.”

He’s not surprised this is happening, but encouraged.

“It’s great to see them getting started on it so soon after the investment was announced,” said Sweeney. “It means there will be infrastructure in place to benefit everybody sooner than later.”

Preston is excited about the potential connections from his city to others.

“Specifically the 401, and the ability to get to London in an easier way,” said Preston. “It gives us those connections where the whole region can work together and get more efficient and far safer transportation between our municipalities.”

A public information session about the project will be held on August 17.

More information about the project can be found here.