Peterborough County has approved a corridor for protections for the future second bridge crossing in the Village of Lakefield.
The protected corridor which council approved was option 2B which consists of widening the 7th Line and adding the new bridge crossing to align with County Road 32.
On August 5, Kevin Jones, Senior Consultant of Paradigm Transportation Solutions Limited and Doug Saccoccia, General Manager, Engineering and Construction presented county council with their findings.
Jones outlined the project and how they ended up with this decision.
In 2022, the County Transportation Master Plan was updated and found that by 2051, the current bridge crossing in the village of Lakefield would be over capacity.
He explained that there is a lot of future growth projected for Lakefield, with about 3,500 new residents expected by 2051.
Currently there are about 700 trucks that use Bridge Street each day to access Lakefield businesses and HWY 28.
Jones also said that any impacts to the bridge would sever the community and impact access to emergency services. The current bridge also is difficult for cyclists to cross as there is not much room for them to share the road with vehicles.
To eventually create a new bridge, the County needed to protect the area in which the bridge would eventually go. While this is a future project, if they did not identify the location now, they may not get the chance to build in the optimal location as development is happening every day.
There were five options originally presented to council and the public for this corridor of protection.
• Option 1 – existing bridge: Widen the existing County Road 29 (Bridge Street) structure to 4 lanes
• Option 2 – new bridge and road alignment: Construct new bridge (and potential new road alignment) at County Roads 32/33.
• Option 3 – new bridge / road alignment (7th Line): Construct new bridge between 7th Line and County Road 32
• Option 4 – new bridge / road alignment (6th Line): Construct new bridge between 6th Line and County Road 32
• Option 5 – new bridge / road alignment (5th Line): Construct new bridge (and new road alignment) between County Road 29 (Lakefield Road) and Centre Road
Option five ultimately did not carry forward as it was too far south and did not address the capacity issues in Lakefield.
Through the process, options were evaluated and refined
Through the refinements, option 2B was created which optimized the route connecting to County Road 33.During the evaluation of each option, this was the one that ranked the highest and most preferred.
The county did engage the public in these consultations as well, with the first Public Open House being held in October of 2025. They also met with local Douro Dummer and Selwyn Business owners about the impact these options may have on them. The econ open house was hosted on May 27, 2026.
They have also been actively engaged with Parks Canada and local First Nations on this project.
Some of the key points from feedback the County received included:
• Support need for second bridge crossing – loss of parking, downtown impacts, some concerns about location
• Concerns about extra traffic / trucks on 7th Line, and impacts on safety
• Concern for potential impacts on natural features, including fish habitats, turtles, migratory birds, wetlands, species at risk, and water quality in the Otonabee River.
• Concern about direct impacts to residences, private properties, and agricultural lands.
• Integration with surrounding transportation network
It was recommended the council approve option 2B and start planning for future development of this bridge such as implementing future traffic signals at Country Road 29/7th Line and County Road 29/Water Tower Road as well as add a sidewalk on the south side of County Road 29, west of the school to County Road 18.
Coun. Heather Watson spoke after the presentation was made by Jones.
She stated, “I fundamentally believe that the MTO needs to be looped in on this sooner than later, because we all know how challenging it is to work with the MTO at times. And I know the mayors all along the corridor of HWY 28 have been working as a unified group to ensure that all 28 is safer, but this intersection keeps coming up…I just really want to stress the importance of making sure that the record is there that we are intending on setting up some sort of arrangement with the MTO so that as time moves on, we’re able to address those concerns because that intersection isn’t getting any safer.”
Saccoccia responded by saying the MTO was notified about this project with all other agencies, however once council approved the recommendation, Saccoccia said staff would be able to meet with the MTO annually to discuss this project, recognizing it is a 20 to 25 year project.
CAO Sheridan Graham also told council that they also have a delegation with the MTO during the AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario) conference later this month where they are able to raise this issue.
Coun. Ron Black asked for clarity on when the county would be taking possession of the land around this corridor. He wanted to know if the County would be taking possession immediately or what the process was in protecting the corridor.
Jones explained, “There are two steps to that process. The first is the property protection plan, so that in the official plan would designate an area that is called a property protection where the county wouldn’t own that property, but they would protect that property. So if someone wanted to make an improvement to their property, that fell within that 36 meter right of way, that could be denied through the planning approvals process. They may be able to work with the resident to determine what else could be done, but next step would be where the county would actually acquire those lands. Well, that’ll be way down the road closer to when you decided to implement this, and you would assume that that property and then the county would be looking to acquire those lands to protect that right of way. That would be sort of the second phase when you’re actually ready to implement, and that’s where you would actually purchase the property from from the adjacent residence.”
The recommendation was approved by Council.
More information can be found online at ptbocounty.ca.
