Timeline for Toronto's Gardiner Expressway construction now cut in half
If you regularly take the Gardiner Expressway to and from work in Toronto (and are all too familiar with its congestion), you'll be relieved to hear that the city's massive rehabilitation of the highway is way ahead of schedule.
Speaking at a construction site this week, Mayor Olivia Chow announced that work on a key section of the aging Gardiner Expressway has been accelerated significantly.
"For a decade, our old infrastructure had been falling apart, and we know that the Gardiner needs to be rebuilt. But while we're doing that, lots of congestion," Chow said.
"But guess what? Tonight, the last section of the girders is going in, and the construction time has been cut by half from three years to 1.5 years thanks to the very hardworking, dedicated crews here and the partnership with the provincial government."
According to the City, the elevated freeway, which has been in service for over 60 years, has reached the end of its original design life, with decades of exposure to harsh weather, road salt, and increasingly heavy traffic all taking a toll.
In 2016, Toronto City Council adopted a Strategic Rehabilitation Plan consisting of six projects to repair the highway, with the first section of construction work completed in 2021 between Jarvis and Cherry streets.
Section two of the project, which spans from Dufferin Street to Strachan Avenue, began in November 2023, and involves replacing 700 metres of concrete deck and girders, rehabilitating the associated substructure, and installing new street lighting.
The third portion of the project, which is also currently underway, will reconstruct 6.5 kilometers of at-grade expressway and include the rehabilitation of 15 bridges from Highway 427 to the Humber River.
Future steps of the plan include replacing two kilometers of the elevated section of the expressway from Grand Magazine Street to York Street, and reconstructing the elevated expressway from Cherry Street to the Don Valley Parkway.
The Province credits the accelerated schedule to its $73 million investment, announced in July 2024, which aimed to ramp up work on the project. As a result, the rehabilitation's completion date has been moved up from April 2027 to April 2026, just in time for the FIFA World Cup.
Although the timeline acceleration is positive, the short-term impact on traffic along the expressway has been significant. According to an analysis conducted by Geotab ITS earlier this year, travel times along the Gardiner have more than doubled in many areas compared to pre-construction levels.
More specifically, the commute from Humber River to Strachan Avenue has tripled, increasing from 8 to 24 minutes, and the stretch from Jarvis Street to Dufferin Street has gone from 11 minutes to 30 minutes.
The analysis also found that some sections are witnessing delays of up to 230 per cent during peak hours.
Still, government officials stress that the long-term benefits of the rehabilitation will outweigh the temporary inconvenience of traffic. Once complete, the expressway will not only be structurally safer, but could save up to 22 minutes per trip for its 140,000 daily users once all phases are complete.
fotografiko eugen/Shutterstock.com
