Even TV shoots are struggling with Toronto's never-ending construction

From pedestrians to cyclists, motorists, and even filmmakers, it seems like everyone in Toronto is struggling to keep up with the city's never-ending construction. 

The upcoming television series, Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, is just the latest production to struggle with the city's endless roadwork, according to a new interview with Variety. 

The show, which is based on the American series, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, will feature ten episodes set in Toronto and centred on crime stories "ripped from the headlines." 

Rogers Sports & Media first confirmed the series in June, and the show is currently halfway through production, with the plot following an elite squad of detectives who investigate high-profile cases and corruption in the city. 

People already have hilarious episode ideas for Toronto's Law and Order series https://t.co/qamJoZxAMp #Toronto

— blogTO (@blogTO) June 6, 2023

The one-hour episodes will star an all-Canadian cast, including Aden Young, Kathleen Munroe, Karen Robinson, K.C. Collins, Nicola Correia-Damude, and Araya Mengesha. 

With lots of shots of Toronto's downtown core, production inevitably ran into some issues, given that many areas of the city are still a work in progress as a result of long-overdue projects. 

"The biggest production challenge is probably construction — Toronto is a construction zone. So that has been one of our more exciting challenges to try and overcome," executive producer Amy Cameron told Variety. 

Aside from construction, it looks like the city's standstill traffic has also left a sour impression on some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Tom Cruise, who noted that he was unfortunately all too familiar with the city's congestion. 

The cause-and-effect relationship between construction and traffic in Toronto luckily doesn't seem to have altered the show's timeline too drastically, and it's still slated to debut on Citytv in spring 2024.