Toronto's next major construction headache is coming to Finch

Metrolinx and the Province of Ontario just took a huge step forward in their creation of Toronto's new Finch West LRT – an 11 kilometre light rail transit line that promises to make getting around the city (or the northwest end of it, at least) easier than ever before.

As a resident of #North_York (Keele & Finch,) the new subway station is a blessing. Finch West LRT sounds good on paper but I hope city planners have kept traffic in mind.
Not looking forward to the construction.

— Kuldip Bhogal (@2015SHOdriver) April 12, 2018

The $1.2 billion project, scheduled for completion in 2022, will link the TTC's Finch West Subway Station to a below-grade terminus at Humber College, with 16 surface stops in between.

The Finch West LRT station map.

"It brings new stations and stops, connecting northwest Toronto to the subway and to transit services from York Region, Peel Region and everywhere in between," writes Metrolinx on its website. "It's going to change the way you live in Toronto."

The regional transit authority announced on Thursday with Infrastructure Ontario that it had selected its "preferred proponent" to build the project: Mosaic Transit Group.

Mosaic Transit Group selected as preferred proponent to design, build, finance and maintain the Finch West LRT project. https://t.co/70lYeVzPAm @Metrolinx @FinchWestLRT #FinchWest pic.twitter.com/qjrCV3I9MQ

— Infrastructure ON (@InfraOntario) April 12, 2018

What this means is that they can now move forward with making the thing actually happen.

Mosaic, a consortium led by ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc., Aecon Construction Group Inc., and CRH Canada Group Inc., will design, build, finance and maintain the Finch West LRT.

Get across Finch in a pinch. 11 km of new rapid transit is now under construction: https://t.co/sjvv0vjUEa pic.twitter.com/PB0xAta0uT

— Finch West LRT (@FinchWestLRT) April 4, 2018

They'll begin construction on the project sometime this year, but preliminary work started last year. 

A rendering of one of the stops along the Finch West LRT.

More recently, Enbridge has been "relocating natural gas pipelines along the Finch West LRT route" in preparation for the project. Access to the Humber River Recreational Trail from Finch Ave. will be closed to accommodate this work until at least June.