After more than a decade of planning, a secondary access road going into Fort William Historical Park is finally under construction. This will enable the facility to host major events, including music festivals and will make it much easier for traffic to flow into and out of the park.
By being able to handle larger crowds, the park will be able to hold larger events such as Rock the Fort which was a popular weekend festival held in 2005 and 2006 that featured Heart, Motley Crue's Vince Neil, Alanah Myles and Bachman Cummings according to Thunder Bay News Watch.
"The added capacity from the new road will provide FWHP with the capability to bring larger events to Northern Ontario as it will have a more streamlined traffic flow than in the past. One of the primary benefits of the new FWHP road is the health and safety of our visitors and staff. The addition of the new road will provide two exits to safely and quickly move people off the property in case of an emergency. The new road will also provide FWHP with the ability to offer new alternative programs to the public."
Fort William's General Manager | Sergio Buonocore
The new road, which includes an adjacent trail, is located off Broadway Avenue between Highland Court and King Road. King Road is the existing entrance to the park. This will connect with King Road just south of David Thompson Drive and run along the north side of the overflow parking area and campground.
Also included in the project will be building an additional exit from the parking area. That is being partially built by Bruno's Contracting.
Buonocore has stated that it is too soon to put a final price on the project but has confirmed that their share of the contract is worth about $6 million. The project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2021.
Buonocore said that the access road is something that he has been pushing to make happen for more than a decade but due to the size of the project, delays were inevitable.
A project such as this has been a multi-agency initiative with many steps and approvals in the process such as:
- Public consultations
- Environmental and ecological assessments
- Archeological site reviews
Fort William Historical Park is one of the largest living history attractions in North America and is devoted to re-creating the days of the North West Company and the Canadian fur trade.
It consists of 57 heritage and modern buildings on 250 acres, including a state-of-the-art astronomy centre.
At this time, the Fort William Historical Park is closed in response to public health concerns surrounding COVID-19.
