It’s been more than a decade since a new federal road was built in Canada, but the new Highway One project in Ontario is “greater in scale than the Sum of its Parts”.
The government says it will create an 8,000 kilometre (5,200 mile) road between Montreal and Toronto with an extension to provide new and expanded access to the rest of Canada.
The project will create more than 10,000 jobs.
Mr Harper said the project will be a “transformative project” that will “give Canadians the ability to connect with their neighbours and to experience a better quality of life”.
“The Highway One is a significant project, but it is a project that will bring significant economic benefits and create a better standard of living for Canadians,” Mr Harper added.
“It will also create opportunities for Canadians to participate in a vibrant economy.”
The project is being built on land owned by the federal government, but not yet leased.
The land will be leased to private companies to develop the highway, and there will be two lanes each way, with an exit on the south side of the highway.
It is expected to be completed in 2021.
The prime minister also said that the government has made a commitment to invest $3.6 billion over the next decade in the project, including $1.2 billion over 10 years.
The rest of the funding will be spent over 10 to 20 years, and the first project has already received $1 billion from the federal and provincial governments.
It’s the first highway in Canada to be built using a hybrid approach to the construction of a new road.
The government has been using a combination of conventional highway construction methods, which involve building two or three lanes, and a hybrid system where one lane is built first, then a second lane, then the third lane and so on, before the last lane can be built.
It then allows people to connect by using the first lane to enter a building and exit to the other side of that building.
The highway is being designed to be as flexible as possible, but is expected not to take up a single lane of traffic.
It will be built in phases, but Mr Harper says the overall project will take 10 to 15 years.