To All Commissioners
Re: Impact of 2018 Road Construction – Conventional Transit Service
Recommendation
The report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
The City of London will be undertaking a large number of road, water, and wastewater infrastructure projects for the 2018 construction season. As set out in the table below, the city has prioritized the top 10 major construction projects for this year and eight of them will have significant impacts on transit service. The majority of the projects are scheduled to commence in early to mid-April and are projected to continue until late October/early November.
Transit Impacts of Summer Construction Projects
| Location | Duration | Routes to be Detoured |
| Western/Wharncliffe between Oxford and Platts Lane | Early April to November | 2, 102 |
| Dundas between Ridout and Wellington | Early April to November | All 11 routes currently using Dundas will be permanently re-routed to utilize King and Queens.
There will be impact to north/south routes when the intersection at Richmond is closed for up to six weeks |
| Main St. between Campbell & Dingman | Late April to September | 28 |
| York St between Thames River & Talbot | TBD | 5, 11, 23 |
| Wonderland/Wharncliffe to Bostwick | TBD | 12, 28 |
| Egerton between Dundas and CN Rail Tracks | Early April to November | 7
Also in and out of garage routings for most routes out of the Highbury facility |
| Wonderland/Hwy 402 | TBD | No service impacts |
| Colonel Talbot PS and Foremain Projects | TBD | 24, 28 |
| Hamilton/Sackville between Chelsea and Egerton | Early May to November | 3 |
| Talbot between Fullarton & Kent | TBD | No service impacts |
While most of the resulting detours impact a limited number of routes, the overall impacts of the construction are anticipated to cause schedule adherence issues for surrounding routes, especially when work crosses major intersections, i.e. Wharncliffe and Oxford.
The 2018 operating budget includes approximately 1,800 hours for additional tripper buses relating to construction-related detours. The hours and use of tripper buses are intended to mitigate the impact on schedule adherence for routes impacted by the construction and on the service overall, however given the magnitude of some of the construction projects and related detours, most notably the Western/Wharncliffe construction, the addition of tripper buses will have minimal impact. The impact on route schedules and service reliability also fluctuate on a daily basis. It is anticipated that a significant number of the hours will be allocated to the Western/Wharncliffe construction due to the magnitude of this detour.
Detours
LTC administration will be working closely with civic administration as well as the specific contractors on each project to ensure regular communication regarding the status of the projects in an effort to mitigate the impact of construction on service and ridership by allowing bus traffic in work zones where it is deemed safe to operate.
Administration will be developing a communications strategy to ensure passengers and Operators are aware of the detours with as much advance warning as possible. The Automatic Vehicle Location/ Communication system (AVLC) will be programmed to automatically announce when the route is going on detour and when it has returned to regular routing as well as all of the temporary stop locations for any detours that are known in advance and anticipated to last longer than 30 days. For any shorter duration detours, Operators have the ability to notify passengers of the detour through on-board announcements.
Shelter Removals/Re-installations
It is currently anticipated that 14 shelters will need to be removed for the major construction projects noted above. Under the current shelter agreement, London Transit is responsible for all shelter removals/re-installations at a cost of $750 for each removal and $600 for each re-installation. Of the 14 shelters, nine are currently located along Dundas Street and will be removed by the project contractor and not re-installed given there will be no bus on Dundas Street once the project is complete. As such, LTC will be responsible for the costs of removal/re-installation of five shelters. Funding for shelter removals/re-installations is included in the 2018 operating budget. Concrete shelter pads and accessible bus stop pads are installed by the City of London wherever concrete curb and/or sidewalk is required.
Recommended by:
Katie Burns – Director of Planning
Shawn Wilson – Director of Operations
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny – General Manager