The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is closing in the miles it is away from completing the realignment and reconstruction of the Highway 11 interchange at Muskoka Road 169.

An Ontario Municipal Board hearing will be held in council chambers next Tuesday, April 29, to discuss the proposed road closings associated with reconstructing the interchange to provide full north and south access to the highway.

As part of the detail design process, which was recently completed by the MTO and the consulting firm McCormick Rankin Corporation, the consultants have applied to the OMB under the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act on behalf of the MTO to close certain open and unopened road allowances where they intersect with Highway 11 within the study area.

It’s the first trace of noticeable activity from the MTO on the interchange since a public information session in February 2006 that reviewed the detail design.

Gordan Rennie of the MTO said on Monday there are seven unopened and untravelled road allowances, two shore road allowances and two formal public roads within the study area from the Gull Lake Narrows to just south of Muskoka Road 169 that need to be closed.

Access to the travelled roads that intersect Highway 11 — level crossings at Pinedale Road and Hewitt Street — will be replaced with a flyover just south of their current locations, he said.

The OMB hearing is a formal, public way of obtaining permission to close up the property, Rennie said, and allows residents an opportunity to comment or convey any concerns. The one-day public hearing begins at 10:30 a.m.

Before construction of the interchange begins, the MTO’s existing patrol yard must be relocated. Essentially, the interchange will be shifted farther east away from the highway, with the new alignment running through the existing patrol yard in order to reduce the radius of the curve in Highway 11.

Engineering and property acquisition for the future interchange project is ongoing, Rennie said. Construction timing and staging is expected to take three to four years, following completion of the new MTO patrol yard, he added.

While utility relocations are scheduled to begin this summer, construction timing has yet to be finalized and is subject to a number of factors, including completion of engineering, property acquisition and prioritization of the multi-year Southern Highways Program, Rennie explained.

The ministry has worked with the town of Gravenhurst and the developers of the large commercial development at the south end of town to identify interim municipal road improvements in the area of the interchange to allow the new Talisman Drive commercial development to proceed, he said.