Nearly $100M in stimulus projects includes city-hall upgrade
Fri, June 5, 2009
The largest public-works spending boom in London's history will deliver relief to long-suffering drivers, open new lands to industry, sink millions into sewers and even fix up city hall.
Nearly $100 million in projects — 42 in all — were announced today, the result of government efforts to lift an economy burdened by the recession.
London taxpayers will be on the hook for about $30 million of the total cost, with Ottawa and Queen's Park paying the rest.
About 2,000 construction jobs are expected to be created.
The work includes $11.85 million for a railway overpass at Hale and Trafalgar streets, a rail crossing that's long been a source of frustration for London drivers.
Two of the largest projects, including the most costly one, will go to service new lands in city-owned industrial parks — one at the airport, the other near Highbury Avenue and the Highway 401.
Both industrial parks are key to a city plan to try to reposition London as an international cargo and business gateway in the next economy.
One project sure to raise eyebrows — the No. 5 by dollar amount — is a nearly $5-million upgrade to city hall itself. While the 1960s-era building is much older than city halls in some comparable cities, critics — and taxpayers — may wonder how fixing it up lifts the economy, especially with so many other worthy projects out there. 