Ontario Construction News staff writer
Sudbury-based Teranorth Construction & Engineering has been awarded an $87.9-million contract to widen a five-kilometre section of Highway 11/17 between McGuire Road and Coughlin Road, northwest of the existing two-lane corridor.
The project is part of Ontario’s plan to twin more than 107 kilometres of Highway 11/17 between Thunder Bay and Nipigon.
Work will widen the highway from two lanes to four, with two lanes in each direction separated by a grass median. It also includes construction of two new bridges over the Black Sturgeon River.
“A four-laned Highway 11/17 corridor should be seen as a national priority and a truly nation-building project,” said Walid Abou-Hamde, CEO of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association. “At a time of economic uncertainty, investments like Highway 11/17 create good, direct jobs while generating significant economic benefits throughout the broader supply chain and local communities.”
The project is being completed under the Ministry of Transportation’s Highway 11/17 expansion program. Ontario’s 2025-28 Northern Highways Program identifies the McGuire Road-to-Coughlin Road section as a five-kilometre, design-bid-build project that includes the two new bridges and illumination.
Teranorth, which specializes in highway construction, municipal infrastructure and site development, has completed a number of major highway and bridge projects across northern Ontario. The company has previously worked on sections of Highway 11/17, including the four-laning near Red Rock.
The federal government is providing up to $26.05 million for the project through the New Building Canada Fund’s Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component.
The Highway 11/17 expansion is part of a broader program to four-lane the Trans-Canada Highway between Thunder Bay and Nipigon. Ontario completed major sections between Coughlin Road and Highway 582 and between Highway 587 and Pearl Lake in 2025. The province says more than 100 kilometres of the corridor is ultimately planned for expansion.
Design work is also underway on the 7.6-kilometre section from Pearl Lake to the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway overhead at Ouimet, while preliminary design is underway for an 11-kilometre section from Highway 582 to Dorion East Loop Road.
Ontario is also expanding operations at the Shuniah truck inspection station on Highway 11/17 to 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The province says the $30-million facility will increase commercial vehicle enforcement along the corridor.
“We’re happy to see our government investing in northern road infrastructure that is critical for travel, trade and our regional economy,” said Kevin Holland, MPP for Thunder Bay–Atikokan. “Expanding the Trans-Canada Highway near Nipigon will improve safety and reliability for everyone travelling this important corridor, while strengthening the movement of goods across northwestern Ontario and the rest of the country.”
Nadia Todorova, executive director of the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario, said the group supports the widening project as part of efforts to improve the reliability of the northern transportation network.
