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Building a concrete barrier — the option a grassroots group is pushing Ontario’s new Tory government to adopt — would also require filling in the grass median and adding drainage and paved shoulders, he said.

In the meantime, Nichols noted a $12.3-million contract was awarded this spring to install 48.4 km of cable barriers this year from Victoria Road, in eastern Chatham-Kent, to Iona Road, near London.

The first cable barriers anywhere along the 401, their installed cost works out to just under $255,000 per kilometre.

Another 16.3 km of cable barrier will be installed from east of Drake Road to east of Charing Cross Road, and west from Mull Road to west of Victoria Road, all in Chatham-Kent.

That will provide median coverage for just more than half of the 401 between London and Tilbury, with the rest getting cable barriers by the end of 2021 as sections of the highway are rebuilt.

“Installing high-tension cable is the fastest way to bring significant safety improvements to this section of Highway 401 in Southwestern Ontario with an open grass median,” Nichols said.

Unlike concrete barriers, which many safety advocates in Southwestern Ontario prefer, cable barriers can be installed without having to make significant changes to a highway system’s layout.

But Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley, a veteran of many regional battles with the province and an advocate of concrete barriers, said he questions the move to install cable if concrete is planned later.