\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ontario Construction News staff writer<\/p>\n
The City of Brampton has secured nearly $1.2 million in provincial funding to improve wetlands, wildlife habitat and stormwater infrastructure along Heart Lake Road.<\/p>\n
Funding, announced Aug. 10, comes through Ontario\u2019s Wetlands Conservation Partner Program and will support the Heart Lake Road Wetlands Connectivity Project, a partnership between the City and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA).<\/p>\n
Construction started in June, with TRCA serving as construction manager and project partner.<\/p>\n
The project will enhance and expand wetland habitat within the Heart Lake wetland complex, improve water flow and wildlife passage, and strengthen the ecological connection between the wetlands and Spring Creek.<\/p>\n
Planned work includes replacing an aging culvert, installing wildlife fencing and restoring wetland habitat. The fencing will help guide turtles and other wildlife safely beneath Heart Lake Road, while the culvert replacement will improve water flow and provide a safer passage for wildlife. Improvements are also expected to help reduce flooding and strengthen the ecological health of the wetland complex.<\/p>\n
The project is part of Brampton\u2019s Road Ecology Program, which was endorsed by city council in 2024. The long-term initiative focuses on identifying roads that create barriers to wildlife movement and using monitoring, research and infrastructure improvements to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and reconnect natural habitats.<\/p>\n
City and community volunteers have conducted extensive wildlife monitoring along the Heart Lake Road corridor between Sandalwood Parkway East and Mayfield Road.<\/p>\n
During the 2025 monitoring season, 27 trained volunteers recorded 106 incidents involving wildlife and roadways. The findings helped identify the Heart Lake Road corridor as one of Brampton\u2019s highest-priority locations for wildlife connectivity improvements and informed the restoration work now underway.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtecting and restoring our wetlands is an investment in both our environment and our community\u2019s resilience,\u201d Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said. \u201cBy enhancing natural infrastructure, improving stormwater management and reducing flood risk, this project will help safeguard residents, strengthen local ecosystems and preserve these important natural spaces for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investment will help reduce flood risk while protecting wetlands and natural spaces around Heart Lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we\u2019re working with the community to make infrastructure safer and more resilient while protecting this valuable ecological corridor for species travelling to and from the Heart Lake Conservation Park,\u201d said John MacKenzie, CEO of TRCA.<\/p>\n
The Heart Lake Road project is also supported by local environmental organizations, including the Heart Lake Turtle Troopers. Work is intended to improve habitat connectivity and create safer wildlife passage while upgrading infrastructure along one of Brampton\u2019s key ecological corridors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Ontario Construction News staff writer The City of Brampton has secured nearly $1.2 million in provincial funding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194339],"tags":[51759,49,48],"class_list":["post-856495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brampton","tag-brampton","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}