Gardiner lane closures begin next week
Toronto commuters should prepare for delays and detours as a major construction project on a western stretch of the Gardiner Expressway begins next week with shifting, intermittent lane closures.
On Monday, work will start with the closing of an eastbound lane between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue as the city performs crucial rehabilitation work on the aging highway.
During the eastbound closures, the eastbound on-ramp of the Gardiner, just east of Jameson will also be closed.
Once that side is complete, work will begin on the westbound side, closing one lane in that direction until the middle of April.
There may also be overnight closures of a second lane, as required.
There will be no lane restrictions on the March long weekend or from April 6-8.
Construction then begins in earnest in mid-April when the Gardiner will be reduced to just two lanes in each direction between Dufferin and Strachan until mid-2027, reducing the capacity of the busy highway by one third.
The $300-million construction project is the second phase of the city’s multi-year rehabilitation plan for the Expressway, which has deteriorated due to age, heavy usage, weather and salt.
There will be a brief reprieve from the construction when the 2026 FIFA World Cup lands in Toronto.
The Gardiner work comes as heavy construction has placed much of downtown Toronto in a chokehold. Congestion has roared back to near 2019-levels as lane closures and roadwork paralyze downtown.
The lane restrictions will coincide with other closures in Toronto’s west end. Water main and streetcar track repairs are expected to reduce lanes and temporarily close a stretch of King Street West through the end of this year.
The city said it has prepared a detailed congestion management plan and will mitigate the impacts of the Gardiner closures using diversions, traffic agents and signal timing adjustments, such as extending the Green time along Lakeshore Boulevard to keep traffic flowing. The city will monitor the effects of these measures and adjust as needed, Roger Browne, Toronto’s director of traffic management said at a press conference Tuesday.
“We are working to balance between critical construction and the needs and businesses using (these) roads,” Browne said.
The full Gardiner Expressway rehabilitation plan, which was approved by council in 2016, is expected to be complete in 2030.