Ministry says it's expediting processes around widening Hwy 3

While transportation minister Jeff Yurek said Highway 3 will be expanded, there is no specific timeline mentioned anywhere.

Ontario has slated $2.75 billion for provincial highways in the infrastructure expenditures as part of the budget for 2019-20. Highway 3 was not mentioned a single time.

In Doug Ford's campaign trail, he promised to widen the roadway between Essex and Leamington, "not a year down the road but immediately."

Almost a year later, no shovels have hit the ground.

After the PCs tabled the 2019-20 budget, MPP for Chatham-Kent-Leamington Rick Nicholls said there will be an announcement about Highway 3 coming shortly.

For truck driver Max Faddoul, he thinks widening the roadway is necessary, because he's seen "quite a few accidents."

"People always in a hurry. Leamington is very busy now, a lot of people travel from Windsor to Leamington to work," he said.

Kurt Phaneuf, from Leamington, thinks a second lane will help keep the flow of traffic going. There are people who want to go faster, who may be "stuck behind" the slower drivers.

"There's a lot of people that need to get to where they're going," he said.

CBC News has reached out to Essex MPP Taras Natyshak but didnot heard back before publishing this story.

In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson from Ministry of Transportation says it's taking steps to expedite engineering and acquire any necessary property for widening Highway 3 between Essex and Leamington.

Another highway project the province is taking on is the widening of Highway 401 between Tilbury and London, from four lanes to six lanes.

Yurek said part of the project will include installation of concrete barriers, for which advocates have been pushing for years.

Alysson Storey, founder of an advocacy group pushing for those barriers, said she's cautiously optimistic.

"Minister Yurek lives in Carnage Alley and has worked with us on this issue since day one," she said in a news release. "Now it's time we see it in reality."