Is it a tunnel dream, a fantasy or an economic vision for the ages?

As technology improves we are seeing more under-lake transportation tunnels as opposed to bridges. There is the tunnel linking France to England beneath the English channel, and now, Canada has its own example. A tunnel from mainland Toronto underneath Lake Ontario linking the city to its Island Airport. Although this article does not address the aspirations of those who yearn for a similar but obviously longer and more expensive tunnel connecting the Niagara Region via St. Catharines to downtown Toronto, This state of the ages technological advancement provides the hope. Such an endeavor who reduce the travel time from the US border to downtown Toronto to about a 20 minute drive. The savings in Transportation costs would be enormous. Tourism to Toronto from the US and from Toronto to Niagara would also greatly increase. Some would even argue the environment would benefit with reduce spent fuel transporting goods between Canada and the United States that currently have to be transported around the Lake.

What would a tunnel from St Catharines to Toronto mean for real estate investors in the Niagara region? Wealth. And lots of it. If you’ve ever sat at the edge of Lake Ontario from the St. Catharines side, you know you can clearly view the CN Tower and downtown Toronto. For all intense purposes, the Niagara Region, in particular St. Catharines, would become a suburb of downtown Toronto. Immediately, the Region would become attractive for the tens of thousands who work in downtown Toronto but commute daily from hours north, west and east. Property values in the Niagara Region and St. Catharines in particular would sky-rocket to levels more comparable to downtown Toronto. That would mean real estate values at least tripling. Southern Toronto and Niagara Falls would become one big tourist destination…with a new 3 billion dollar casino on the Toronto side of the Lake and Niagara’s own Casino’s on the south side. The warmer weather south of Lake Ontario would make the Niagara regent a preferred residence for both commuters and retirees who would naturally prefer to retire to a warmer climate. In fact, it may very well establish the Niagara Region as the retirement capital of Canada at just the right time as the baby boomers are retiring, and as we all know, there isn’t a region in Canada that has warmer weather than the Niagara Region. Add the advantage of being 20 minutes away from family and friends in Toronto, such a tunnel would be an economic boom for both the Niagara Region and southern Toronto.

“In less than three weeks, two 90-tonne tunnelling drills affectionately nicknamed Chip and Dale will begin boring through the rock and soil underneath a thin ribbon of Lake Ontario separating mainland Toronto from Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

This, needless to say, will be no casual procedure. Over the next six months, excavators will dig below 20 metres of water and 10 metres of rock and lake bed, completing what the Toronto Port Authority says is the world’s only underwater pedestrian tunnel connected to an airport.

Expected to open in early 2014, the Port Authority’s vaunted 240-metre, $82.5 million walkway project broke ground last March, when workers began digging a 31-metre elevator shaft on the mainland side.” (Source: Toronto Star, November 9, 2012).

To view the article in its entirety click link:

 

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1285724–tunnelling-poised-to-start-under-toronto-harbour-s-western-gap

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