Wire barriers on expressway touted by councillor

A Windsor city councillor is in favour of putting high tension wire barriers along the 401.

Ward 7 councillor Irek Kusmierczyk is responding to a plan by the Wynne government to put the wire barriers in the median from Tilbury to London. But he would even like to see them installed along a section of the E.C. Row Expressway as a pilot project to prevent crossover collisions.

"The cable barriers reduce fatalities from those types of crossover collisions by 95 per cent. So high tension cable barriers are highly effective," said Kusmierczyk, who also claims they are cheaper to install and maintain than cement barriers. 

Kusmierczyk said the idea was discussed with Premier Kathleen Wynne when she visited Windsor during the summer.  Local leaders discussed the possibility of some provincial funding.

But Kusmiercyzk brought the issue up to council in 2014. Back then, he estimated to do a section from Jefferson to Banwell Road would cost about $200,000 to $300,000. But the city did a study and later concluded the barriers wouldn't be feasible.

City Engineer Mark Winterton said putting up the barriers would be too costly and too costly to maintain. He said they would have to fill in a ditch in the median to make the barriers effective, and that might cause flooding on the expressway. 

"You would basically be creating a situation that could potentially be more dangerous than the existing situation. So we didn't recommend it at the time," said Winterton.

The city study also found that in other jurisdictions where the barriers are in use, sports cars could slip through them, grass cutting was difficult, damage could be caused by snowplows, and were hard to maintain if not installed properly.

Kusmiercyzk said he might still bring the issue up again at budget deliberations in December.