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A section of E.C. Row Avenue East regularly used to access an east Windsor business park will permanently close to make way for more battery plant construction.
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City council is expected to approve the permanent right-of-way closure between Banwell Road and Anchor Drive on Monday. The 870-metre section of two-lane asphalt road has been closed to traffic for several months to allow for work on the NextStar Energy Inc. battery plant immediately to the south.
“The city through negotiations with NextStar Energy Inc. agreed to include the E. C. Row Avenue East right-of-way and remnant lands to the north as part of the site for the proposed (battery plant),” a report going before city council said.
“This consequently required the city to proceed with an application to close the right-of-way prior to the construction of a future interchange at Banwell Road (and) E. C. Row Expressway,” which has been recommended by a Banwell corridor environmental assessment.
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The battery plant’s site plan includes removing E. C. Row Avenue East and Banwell Road intersection and constructing a private road network connecting Banwell Road to Twin Oaks Drive. It also includes constructing a cul-de-sac at the point where Banwell and E. C. Row Avenue now meet.
To improve the transportation corridor along Banwell Road from Tecumseh Road East to the city limit with the Town of Tecumseh, an environmental assessment performed in 2016 recommended the construction of an interchange at Banwell Road and E. C. Row Expressway that would have required the removal of the E. C. Row Avenue East intersection anyway, the report said.
The affected stretch of E. C. Row Avenue East has been closed since August to allow for battery plant site work. Since then, access to businesses in the Twin Oaks business park, which houses Green Shield Canada, Jamieson Laboratories, several medical clinics, and more, has been limited to Twin Oaks Drive off of Lauzon Parkway.
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The Lauzon 10 Transit Windsor bus, which had a stop at the business park, has been rerouted as a result of the right-of-way closure. It will no longer serve the business park “as a result of previously recorded low levels of ridership,” the report said.
NextStar will begin some production in 2024 and reach full operational capacity in 2025.
To land the factory investment, the City of Windsor was responsible for consolidating and preparing the 220 necessary acres of industrial lands at Banwell and E. C. Row Avenue.
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