Hamilton Spectator: 5 key Waterdown projects to watch in 2025
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED BY THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR ON JANUARY 8, 2025. Please click here to find the original article.
The Ministry of Transportation plans to build an interchange at the corner of highways 5 and 6. This will eliminate the need for the current stoplight by constructing a Hwy. 5 bridge over Hwy. 6.
Driving into Waterdown is going to become a bigger challenge in the latter half of 2025 as the city repairs a Dundas Street East bridge.
The repairs are one of three major road projects on the area’s councillor radar. Ted McMeekin said other key priorities for the coming year include a new recreation centre and the planned police and fire station to be built near the southeast corner of Highway 6 and Parkside Drive.
“My job is to make sure all these projects are moving along and not unnecessarily delayed,” the Ward 15 councillor said.
Five key projects for 2025
Hwy. 5 bridge repair
The city has budgeted $3 million to repair the Dundas Street East bridge over Grindstone Creek. Work is expected to start in mid-2025 and will only allow traffic travelling east until the end of the year, when two-way traffic will be restored, McMeekin said.
The partial shutdown “will put incredible pressure” on Parkside Drive and parts of the Mountainview neighbourhood as westbound motorists take other routes to get into Waterdown, he said.
Waterdown recreation centre
The city is consulting the public before moving to the design stage for the recreation centre, budgeted at $27.9 million and to be located next door to the Harry Howell Twin-Pad Arena near Clappison’s Corners.
McMeekin said 13 community groups have already contacted him about the centre and he hopes to form an advisory committee that will make nonpartisan recommendations on potential amenities.
“It’ll be late 2026 by the time it’s up, I suspect,” he said and noted the city will consult the public again after the design stage before tendering the project. “These things take time.”
Police and fire station
To be built near the southeast corner of Hwy. 6 and Parkside Drive, the planned station’s size and price tag have grown during the past year.
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Councillors agreed last May to add a second floor for a 911 call centre and boosted the budget to $48 million — up from an original $25.5 million.
The station, expected to open in 2026, will include two vehicle bays for a paramedic unit and possibly an accident reporting centre, McMeekin said.
Clappison’s Corners interchange
The Ministry of Transportation’s plan to build an interchange at the corner of highways 5 and 6 will eliminate the need for the current stoplight by constructing a Hwy. 5 bridge over Hwy. 6.
The “billion-dollar-plus project” will also allow for the widening of Hwy. 6 to Freelton and has expropriated several properties, with businesses tentatively told to vacate their buildings by this August, McMeekin said.
The city hasn’t been able to get a start date for work but it will likely be in late 2025 or 2026, he said and added the project is key to a long-range plan for an Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) bus depot at the northeast corner once the LRT is built.
The goal is to reassign B Line Express buses that presently run on the LRT route to suburban communities to improve their public transit service, he said.
Waterdown bypass
McMeekin said he is hopeful work will proceed this year on the long-planned bypass, stalled last September by a dispute with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy regarding Indigenous consultation.
Two other area Indigenous groups have signed off on the $58-million project, which redirect east-west traffic to the north of downtown Waterdown and there is reason for optimism the Haudenosaunee may follow suit, he said.
“There are some legal discussions around how we can get the process moving again and I’m hearing good vibes about getting something started this year,” McMeekin said. “I sure hope that happens because that would solve a lot of our major traffic congestion issues in Waterdown.”
— With files from Matthew Van Dongen
Richard Leitner is a reporter with Metroland who covers Hamilton communities, education and the environment. Reach him at rleitner@torstar.ca.
