Halton's completed study would widen Bronte Road to six lanes north of Wyecroft; comments close October 14
Halton Region's environmental study for Regional Road 25 — Bronte Road in Oakville — from Speers Road to Derry Road recommends six lanes from Wyecroft Road north, keeps four lanes south of it, and puts construction at $250.4 million.
The details
What Halton has decided to recommend
Halton Region has completed its Municipal Class Environmental Assessment for Regional Road 25 — Bronte Road through Oakville — from Speers Road north to Derry Road (Regional Road 7) in Milton, a corridor of about 16.5 kilometres. The Environmental Study Report, prepared by the consultant CIMA+, was placed on the public record on September 14, 2026. Subject to comments and approvals, Halton says it intends to proceed to detailed design and construction of the preferred design.
The headline change is width. The study confirms that six lanes are needed from Wyecroft Road to Derry Road to handle future travel demand and to make room for future transit priority infrastructure. South of Wyecroft, the existing four lanes between Speers Road and Wyecroft Road stay, because that segment did not show a need for widening; the report says this also gives a transition to the two-lane road south of Speers.
- Keep four lanes; multi-use paths on both sides
- Widen to six lanes with a raised centre median
- Keep the existing Bronte Road overpass; keep and enhance the multi-use path through the interchange
- Multi-use path and cycle track on the west side; cycle track and sidewalk on the east side
- Owlsnest Way and Henderson Road, plus the access to the biosolids facility
- Realign the road west from north of Burnhamthorpe Road to Henderson Road; widen the Highway 407 underpass and the Sixteen Mile Creek bridge
- 47
The white oak in the median
The design is shaped around the white oak at 1179 Bronte Road, a tree the report estimates at nearly 300 years old, which stands in the landscaped median between the northbound and southbound lanes and is designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. To avoid it, the widening is pushed to the outside of the existing lanes, keeping the current separation between the road and the tree. An existing retaining wall on the west side will have to be widened or moved, and through this stretch the plan uses a multi-use path on the west side and a sidewalk on the east, rather than a full cycle track, to reduce the land needed — including from Bronte Creek Provincial Park.
Cost and staging
The preliminary construction estimate, excluding property, is about $250.4 million in 2026 dollars. The report splits it into three stages that match the planned construction order: Speers Road to Highway 407 first, at $92.4 million; then Britannia Road to Derry Road, at $47.0 million; then Highway 407 to Britannia Road, including the 407 interchange, at $110.9 million. The report says phasing will follow the timing of development along the corridor and may change in detailed design, and it gives no construction start date.
During construction, the report expects to keep two lanes in each direction in urban areas by narrowing and shifting lanes behind a concrete barrier, building one side of the road at a time, with temporary single-lane restrictions in tight spots such as near the white oak. Longer term, servicing strategies adopted by Regional Council in November 2025 identify high-occupancy vehicle lanes and transit signal priority on the corridor for 2037 to 2041, and bus rapid transit in its 2051 transit priority network.
How to comment
The report is open for a 30-day review that ends on October 14, 2026. Written comments go to Halton Region's project team at RR25MCEA@halton.ca, and the report and its appendices are on the Regional Road 25 study page on halton.ca. Separately, a person may ask the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks to order a higher level of study or impose conditions, but only on the grounds that it would prevent, mitigate or remedy adverse impacts on constitutionally protected Indigenous and treaty rights; requests on other grounds will not be considered.