While there is plenty of work planned for Highway 401 in the Belleville area, a new interchange into the city’s industrial area is not currently in the mix, Belleville city council heard Tuesday night.

And Mayor Mitch Panciuk wants to see it put back in.

Glenn Higgins of the Ministry of Transportation and Brent Gotts of consulting firm WSP told council they hoped to have their final recommendations submitted by the end of this year.

However, those recommendations likely won’t include support for a Belleville East Arterial Road, which Panciuk said is not acceptable to the city.

“We need an access to our industrial park from the east end, particularly to support the growth we are going to go through. It is a priority,” Panciuk said. “We are going to be expanding our industrial park even further to the east, meaning that road to the east is essential.

“We are living with the legacy of decisions made about Highways 62 and 37. However, as we look to the future we have to make better decisions.”

In his presentation to council, Gotts said municipal and public consultations to date had presented numerous options to deal with both the need for another interchange and the issues stemming from the current access and egress to the highway at 37.

He said the current set up is “not acceptable” moving forward given the short distance of the ramps and the fact several ramps are used for both access to and exit from Highway 401.

He said proposals to eliminate the Highway 37 interchange, either for the proposed BEAR to the east or even a modified BEAR closer to Highway 37 were both rejected due to issues they created.

“From a 401 perspective they worked fine, but they both created traffic issues on Highway 62 that were not workable,” Gotts said.

However, keeping Highway 37 meant that, for the province, the BEAR no longer became necessary or worthwhile.

Gotts said the decision would not rule out the municipality from building the road, but in answer to a question from Panciuk acknowledged the price tag for such a project would likely exceed $30 million.

Panciuk called the suggestion at the price tag “unreasonable” and suggested the city would be willing to at least talk about losing an interchange – presumably at Highway 37 – if it meant gaining the new interchange in the industrial park.

“We believe we are worthy of a four-interchange system,” he said. “At the very least the eastern arterial system is not cutting it for the city of Belleville and we need to do something.”

After the meeting, Panciuk said he felt council would continue to pursue the issue up the line.

“I expect Belleville city council will take this directly to the Minister of Transportation,” he said. “We will appeal directly to the minister through our MPPs and tell them we would like to see this project include a fourth arterial road or arterial access point.

“We need this to be able to support our industrial growth, which we can’t do if we keep having transport traffic go down Cannifton Road to College.”

Regarding the rest of the proposed changes in the area, Higgins noted the proposal would remove all the on and off ramps east of Highway 62 and west of 37 to create proper spacing between the interchanges.

That, he said, creates a “perfect opportunity” for active transportation systems for pedestrians, cyclists and others to get over the highway at those points because they don’t have to proposed traffic.

The recommendations propose active transportation systems for both 62 and 37.

Coun. Paul Carr noted that such transportation systems were vital for the area.

“Pedestrians are already using (62 and 37). We can say don’t do that but that’s just not going to happen,” he said. “We have folks that don’t have vehicles that want to access things … we are talking necessities …

“I look at other municipalities, particularly in the GTA and the 401 isn’t an impediment. But in our community it is.”

In response to a question, Higgins said the construction work alone for the proposal would take five years from the time the go-ahead was given by the province.

If the report is finalized and accepted by the end of the year, design work and getting final approvals could take an additional two or three years before construction even starts.