Road resurfacing project in the area starts Aug. 4

Heather Wright/The Independent

A $1.8 million road reconstruction project at Forest Road and London Line won’t include a new roundabout.

The project to recycle and repave about six kilometres of London Line and another two kilometres on Forest Road begins Aug. 4. But county officials say the $2.6 million roundabout is not part of the plan.

Matt Deline, Lambton’s public works manager, says the preliminary design of the roundabout is complete but the county is “continuing to pursue land acquisitions to accommodate the proposed footprint of the roundabout.”

The project was part of the 2023 to 2026 construction plan and was approved by county councillors in 2025.

Lambton County started looking at the corner after both the public and the politicians raised concerns in 2021. Watford’s Bob Hollingsworth died in a crash at the corner in September 2020. Then, in 2021, a motorcyclist was airlifted to hospital with serious injures.

That prompted the family of Hollingsworth to mount a campaign to get the county to upgrade the intersection which had more than 31 accidents in the previous 10 years.

Lambton County Warden Kevin Marriott is frustrated land purchases are holding up the construction, adding county staff is doing their best to complete the deals. “They know how much council wants to move on these things,” he said.

While Marriott doesn’t know the details of the negotiations, he says landowners seem to have the upper hand, knowing the county doesn’t want to expropriate the land needed for the roundabout.

“The landowners know that if we go to expropriation, it’s very expensive, (so) why don’t we just pay them what they want,” he said.

The Forest Road/London Line roundabout is one of two projects held up by land purchases. The other is Petrolia Line and Kimball Road.

“I was so sure we would get the Forest Road one done this year …I know the staff wants to so bad as well because we were ready to go. All we needed was that (land), and it’s so frustrating.”

That frustration continues as the resurfacing in the area goes ahead.

“The resurfacing would have been going down in a perfect time if the roundabout had have been built last year or this year, like it was supposed to, “ he said. “Then the resurfacing would have finished the job perfectly. Now the resurfacing – because it’s scheduled ahead of time – is going to happen and the roundabout is not done yet. So that’s even more frustrating.”

Work on London Line to the village of Warwick and on Forest Road, from London Line to the Highway 402 exchange, is slated to be complete in the fall.